In the Dark
by Lilly Deadwalker
Summary: (Rewrite of my old fic Heart's Desire) Lucy was born with a dark power that could destroy the world, or save it. Her mother decided to seal the power away to give her daughter the best chance of learning to control the power in the future. A power that will soon start to leak through the seal. Lucy sets off with Laxus on a journey to controlling powers.
1. Chapter 1

**Rewritten 4/1/2019**

**Note: I do not own Fairy Tail. I only own the OCs.**

Lucy sat on her bed and stared out the window. Rain ran down her window as lightning raced across the sky. The storm seemed fitting for the occasion. She didn't realize that tears were streaming down her face at the same rate that the rain streamed down her window. Her apartment shook from another boom of thunder. She sighed and moved from her bed to her desk.

She stood behind the white wooden chair at her desk and stared at the desk's surface. There was a letter sitting on it, lying flat out for her to read. She'd read it many times already but couldn't seem to wrap her head around the contents. Her mother had left her a letter before her death that she had only now just found because her father left it for her as a birthday present the year, she and everyone else on Tenrou disappeared. Part of her wished she hadn't seen the letter.

_My dearest Lucy,_

_If you are reading this, that means I am no longer with you. For that, I am so sorry. I did what had to be done. I couldn't let my only child suffer, you deserved more. You deserved a chance. So, I decided to give my life to give you that chance. _

_You were born with a magic curse, my dear. You hold within you a magic called __Sekai no kuchiku__-__kan. __World destroyer. You were prophesized to have this magic. I had only hoped it wasn't true. This magic was killing you, Lucy. I had to seal it away._

_The seal that I placed on you is called the Sealing of the Cursed Heavens. This seal is strong enough to contain the magic for seven more years until you are old enough to begin learning to control the power. It will slowly start to decay at that seven-year mark. This is when you need to have a teacher. Look for someone who is a powerful thunder mage, Lucy. Thunder magic can tame the world destroyer magic. _

_I should also add that the magic you contain isn't doomed to destroy everything. Just because it is called the world destroyer doesn't mean it will destroy everything. Any power that is capable of great evil is also capable of great good. The choice is up to you once you have complete control. I only pray that you use your powers for good. _

_The last thing that I must add to my final letter to you is that our ancestors are all great seers. Your great-great-grandmother was the one to state your prophecy. Your first stop after you find your teacher is to return home. I have left something for you to help you on your journey. _

_I will always love you my Lucy. _

_-Your Loving Mother_

Lucy picked the letter up off of her desk. She carefully folded it along the creases that already existed in the paper and put it back in its envelope. She brought the envelope up to her nose to see if she could smell any hint of the perfume her mother used to wear on it, only to find she couldn't. She lowered the letter down to her chest and held it close to her heart as she climbed back on her bed and watched the rain fall from the sky, this time knowing that she was letting her tears fall freely.

Lucy woke up some time later, having fallen asleep to the rhythmic tapping of the rain on her window. She rubbed her eyes after setting the letter down on her bed. She turned her gaze to the clock on her wall. Her eyes widened when she realized how late it was.

"Crap, I said I'd be at the guild four hours ago," Lucy muttered to herself. She got off her bed and gently put the letter into her key pouch. She took out a rain coat to wear, as the rain was still coming down, though not as hard as it had earlier in the day. She then made her way to the guild.

* * *

She made it there not too long after. When she entered, she was met with a giant hug from Natsu. Happy, Gray, Erza, and Wendy soon joined in. She felt herself melt into the comfort of their embrace. They all knew what today was and where there to support her. They didn't know any of the information she had just learned, though. Not yet. A few minutes later the group let Lucy go but hung around her to make sure she was alright. They knew this year and coming back from Tenrou was hard for her, having lost her other parent. Lucy gave them a soft smile and they finally let her through into the guild. Lucy then walked up to the bar and got her signature strawberry milkshake.

"Hey Mira, is Master in his office?" Lucy asked.

"He went up there just before you arrived," Mira told her, curious as to why the girl needed to see him. Lucy nodded, not telling Mira why she needed to see him. Lucy got up from her barstool and strolled up the stairs to visit Makarov in his office. The second floor hadn't been a place for exclusively S-class mages in a while due to the fact that so many of them were worthy of the rank, but most of the guild remained on the first floor due to habit. Lucy soon arrived at Makarov's door and knocked.

"Come in," she heard a muffled voice say. Lucy then entered the room.

"Ah, Lucy, how can I help you? You never come see me in the office," Makarov questioned. Lucy got the letter our of her key pouch and gave it to him. She nodded for him to read it. His eyes widened by the time he finished it.

"Well, I do have to say I wasn't expecting this. This changes everything, doesn't it?" Makarov asked her, knowing full well the implications in the letter. Lucy nodded. "And how do you feel about this? I can assume that the years we spent on Tenrou put a pause on the seal's decay, but we need to get you into training to control that power soon, and the sooner the better."

"In all honesty, part of me wishes I never found that letter in the gift's my father left for me. I know I can't just pretend it didn't happen. Too much could go wrong. I wonder about how I will find whatever it is that my mother left for me now that we don't own that property," Lucy replied, her brows furrowed.

"It hasn't been touched since your father went bankrupt. There aren't many people that have enough money to buy such a large estate, you know. I looked into the matter once you explained what happened. Whatever your mother left for you should still be there." Lucy visibly relaxed.

"At least there's that. I have no idea what it could be since I have no memory of any of the sealing," Lucy said.

"Now to the next order of business… We need someone to train you, and I think I have the perfect idea," Makarov said, an innocent looking smile appearing on his face. Lucy knew he was up to something. "LAXUS, GET IN HERE."

Said blond dragon slayer entered the room a few seconds later.

"What do you want Gramps, I'm not supposed to be on paperwork duty for another two hours," Laxus sighed as he entered the room with his eyes closed. Then he smelled someone else in the room and opened his eyes. He stared at Lucy.

"Master, really?" Lucy deadpanned. Makarov continued to smile innocently and Laxus groaned.

"What do you want Gramps, and what does it have to do with Blondie here?"

"Lucy, is it alright for Laxus to read the letter you gave me? It might make things easier than trying to explain everything right off the bat," Makarov asked Lucy. She nodded. Makarov held out the letter for Laxus to grab. Laxus whistled when he was done reading the letter.

"Well, this complicates things then, doesn't it?" Laxus stated. Lucy giggled a bit, and Laxus cocked his head to the side, not sure why she would be laughing in this situation.

"Your grandfather said almost the same thing after he read it, sorry, I thought it was funny," Lucy apologized quickly. Laxus sighed but waved off her apology.

"Don't apologize for that, I'm just glad you got a laugh in today," he said. Laxus and Lucy were looking right at each other and Makarov smirked. His plan would work; he was sure of it. Laxus continued. "I assume that you want me to train her, right?" Laxus turned to face his grandfather. Makarov nodded.

"There aren't many thunder mages in Fiore and given that the only other one we know is from Sabertooth, I would much rather have you helping her. I trust you," Makarov finished. Laxus nodded.

"Lucy, are you okay with this? It won't be easy, I can promise you that, and not just because it will take you a while to get used to my training style," Laxus asked her.

"I don't have a choice. I have to control this or else I'll destroy everything against my will. I need to have control," Lucy said firmly. Laxus smirked.

"Good answer. When do you want to leave? We should within the next week," Laxus asked her.

"Tomorrow. I figure I should tell everyone some of what is going on, but not all the details. It would be bad for too much information to get out, and Natsu isn't the best at keeping secrets all the time," Lucy said, frowning at the thought of not being able to tell her friends the truth.

"They will learn eventually, and they will understand why you couldn't tell them everything, don't worry. They won't hold a grudge, they never will," Laxus said, surprising both Lucy and Makarov. The later found himself smiling. His grandson was growing into the man he was always meant to be.

"I should go talk to my friends then and get packed. Our first stop is my old estate."

* * *

"But Lucy, why do you have to go with HIM?" Natsu growled. It's not that he didn't trust Laxus, it's just that it wasn't himself that was going with Lucy. He would go crazy without having his friend around for months.

"Natsu, she already explained that it has something to do with her magic. It has to be Laxus because he can help her with it. Unless you are suddenly a thunder mage?" Erza chided. She accepted that Lucy would be going away and getting stronger for everyone's sake. She also knew Lucy was hiding something but assumed that she couldn't tell them quite yet. Erza decided she would ask Master if he could tell her anything after.

"But, but but-"Natsu whined, but was cut off by Gray.

"Shut up, Flame-brain. None of us are happy about it but we understand why. Can you stop making this harder than it already is?" Gray shouted. He had had enough of Natsu's complaining. Natsu sighed.

"Fine," he pouted. Lucy sighed. She knew he was going to be the difficult one.

"Lucy-san, please be careful," Wendy said softly. Lucy smiled towards her.

"Don't worry, Wendy. I'll be okay. I'll be back before you know it," Lucy said. "Anyway, we leave tomorrow morning and I need to go pack up my things. I don't know how I'll pay rent for the next few months," Lucy sighed. Someone appeared behind her.

"Don't worry about your apartment, Blondie. It'll still be there when we get back," Laxus said from behind her.

"But-"Lucy started, not wanting to feel like she owed yet another person money.

"No buts. I have more than enough to pay for your apartment for a few months. I'm sure your friends wouldn't mind pitching in as well if they have an issue with me paying for it."

"We can take care of her apartment," Erza said firmly. "We have to do something for her as well." The rest of the group nodded. Lucy sighed again but nodded.

"I'll make sure that I write to you guys. Take care of yourselves and don't destroy too much," Lucy said, a sad smile on her face. Her friends grabbed her into another group hug before letting her go so she could go and pack.

"We will be waiting. I'll be the first to fight you when you get back," Natsu said, actually somewhat seriously. Lucy nodded.

"I'll look forward to it."

Laxus walked Lucy back to her apartment.

"So, it was your plan all along to get them to pay for my rent, wasn't it," Lucy accused. Laxus put his hands up in mock surrender.

"I might have, I might not. I knew they would do whatever they could for you while you are away. You would do the same for any of them," Laxus said. Lucy sighed. "And stop sighing, you sigh too much."

"You think I can help it? This whole situation has be stressed!" Lucy exclaimed. Laxus chuckled beside her.

"Don't worry about it, Blondie. I'm just messing with you." Lucy huffed and crossed her arms. "You make it too easy sometimes."

The two walked the rest of the way in silence. It was only another two minutes before they reached her apartment.

"I'll meet you at the train station at around 8. The earlier we get going the better, right?" Laxus asked. Lucy nodded.

"8 it is."

* * *

Lucy sat on her bed as she had clothes strewn around the room, trying to decide what she was going to pack. She regretted only owning mostly short, cropped items. Those weren't the most conducive to training.

"I guess it's time for a shopping trip," she muttered to herself. She grabbed her keys and her wallet and left her apartment to go to the wizard shop nearby. They would most likely have clothes that would work better for training.

It didn't take long for her to get there. Inside, she found five new pairs of shorts that covered her legs to mid-thigh, several new shirts that had higher necklines, and two new pairs of shoes. She cringed when she saw the price of everything but knew it would be worth it.

She went back to her apartment and packed her new clothes away in her suitcase. After this was done, she sat at her desk and decided to write a letter to her mother.

_Dear Mother,_

_ I finally got your letter. It's been hard for me to understand everything that happened. I don't understand why quite yet. I'll be leaving to start training this power so that I can use it for good instead of destroying everything around me. I don't want to hurt anyone. _

_ My friends don't know the whole truth about why I'm leaving, but I'm sure they will understand once they learn. I can't let too many people know this information because it could be dangerous. I don't want someone to hear about this power that could try and manipulate me into using it for their sake. Fairy Tail has been through so much recently with those of us who were frozen on Tenrou returning and then the Grand Magic Games and what happened there with dragons suddenly returning for a bit. We have even more of a fight coming in the future, I'm sure. _

_ I'm afraid of what's going to come. With Zeref appearing on Tenrou and then Acnologia, everything seems to be spiraling. I'll do my best to protect my friends, Mom. I promise._

_ Lucy_

Lucy set down her pen and put the letter in an envelope, then put the letter into the box with all her other letters to her mother. She then stood and walked to her bathroom and started running a bath for herself and decided to relax one last time in the tub. She rested with most of her body beneath the water with the exception of her nose and up. Slowly, tears started welling in her eyes. She sat up in her tub and started sobbing. So much was happening, and she had no time to process everything.

After a few minutes of sobbing, Lucy settled back into the water. She felt better after letting her feelings out. She sat in the water for a while longer before getting out and getting ready for bed. It wasn't terribly late, but she had a long day tomorrow. She curled up in her bed, half expecting Natsu to show up at any moment and curl up with her. He didn't.

* * *

Lucy woke up to her alarm set for 7:00. She turned it off and put her clothes on for the day of travel, then grabbed her suitcase, keys, and whip. She left her apartment, making sure to lock it on her way out, then made her way to the train station. On her way, she made sure to take her time and look at the buildings along the main street in Magnolia. She made mental notes about the colors of the flowers in the flowerboxes on apartments above businesses. She noted how many trees were along the channel. Sadly, she arrived at the station before she could memorize exactly how the city looked. Laxus was already there.

"Are you ready, Blondie?" He asked her.

"Let's go."

**Well that's the first chapter of the new version! This chapter is almost 3 thousand words without the authors note. I plan on making chapters progressively longer, but this was a good stopping point for this chapter. I will be rewriting most of my stories. I was 14 when I did the most recent rewrites, and I have learned a lot more about writing a story in that amount of time. This story will not follow the anime or manga as it introduces new spirits, powers, and dangers. Let me know what you think! This is unbeta-ed.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Hi everyone! Welcome back to the next chapter. Thanks for the favorites and follows thus far!**

**Note: I do not own Fairy Tail. I only own the OCs.**

The train ride was a few hours long. Laxus closed his eyes and put on hid sound pods. Lucy assumed it was because he was a dragon slayer and the music helped him calm his stomach. The two sat in silence until they finally reached their stop. Lucy got a carriage ride reserved to her old estate from there.

The carriage ride was horrible. The roads were full of ruts and deep puddles from the rain the previous day. Poor Laxus looked like he was dying. He tried to lay down on his side but was unfortunately bumped off his seat after the carriage hit yet another rut. He grumbled to himself and sat back on his seat. Lucy frowned. This was going to be a long ride for him, as the train station was about an hour away from the estate.

After what seemed like days (but was only about 40 more minutes), the carriage finally arrived at the edge of the estate. Lucy thanked the driver and told him he could leave. The driver seemed unsure, knowing this estate was located in the middle of nowhere, but left anyway. Lucy watched him leave as Laxus stared at the gates of the estate. He whistled.

"Damn, Blondie. You really were rich, weren't you?" he said, bewildered by just how big the place was.

"Yes. My family used to own the railroad, but after my mother died business got worse. My refusal to marry another rail lord's son was another reason we went under. I don't regret it though. This place holds no happy memories anymore," Lucy said hollowly. Laxus frowned.

"Sorry, Blondie," he said. He genuinely was sorry that he had brought it up, and also the fact that when she was kidnapped by Phantom Lord it was for the very reason that her father needed her to marry.

"No worries, really. I think we should get going. I think its going to start raining again soon, and we have another few miles to walk from here," Lucy said, still with very little emotion in her voice. She opened the gate and started down the road to her old home. Laxus followed closely behind her.

A while later, they finally reached a massive monument in front of a mansion. Lucy stared at the figure and then at the inscription below it.

_Layla Heartfilia_

Lucy kneeled down in front of the grave and ran her fingers across the smooth stone surface. Laxus stayed a respectful distance away, knowing that she needed this time to herself.

"I'll make you proud, Mom," Lucy whispered to herself as a single tear dripped down from her right eye. She sighed, then stood and walked past the grave site and to her old home. Laxus followed behind her, still silent. Lucy didn't mind his silence, though.

The massive doors were locked, but Lucy still had an old key to the house. It still worked, and the doors unlocked. Once she stepped inside, she started coughing because of the dust that had kicked up from her opening the door.

"Geez, I guess I didn't expect the dust to be this bad," Lucy said. "It's like no one has lived here in ages… Well that's actually true, but still." Laxus nodded in agreement.

"How many people did you have on staff here? I imagine there would have been a lot," Laxus asked her, not wanting to push her too far for details of her old life, but still wanting to know more.

"It depended on the year. We actually have a village on the estate where the staff lived. Back when my mother was alive, we had about eighty on at all times. We had chefs, maids, gardeners, guards. Anything you think a rich family would have, we had. I had a governess as well, but only after my mother died," Lucy said as she slowly crept farther into the old house. She ran her fingers down a dusty shelf and crinkled her nose at the amount of dust she found on her fingers after she looked at them.

"Damn," Laxus muttered. Lucy laughed quietly.

"Yeah, that's what I think now. I thought it was normal to have so many people working for my family all the time when I was little. I had little interaction with anyone outside of a high-ranking family until I ran away and went to Fairy Tail," Lucy said as she continued walking around the main hall of the massive house.

"That must have taken a lot of courage, Lucy. We are lucky to have you," Laxus said seriously. "To leave behind everything you knew, no matter how bad, it took a lot of strength."

Lucy stopped in front of him, then turned around to face him.

"Who are you and what have you done with the real Laxus?" she asked, squinting and looking him over. Laxus crossed his arms and huffed.

"It's still me. I'm just must less of an idiot than I was when we met. I learned from my mistakes and now I can recognize everyone's individual strengths and struggles," he grumbled, his cheeks tinted a little red. Lucy smiled.

"You will be a great guild master, Laxus. Everyone makes mistakes, especially when we are young and have terrible things happen to us. What's most important is that we learn from them, and you've done that. I guess that now you've really shown me how much you've grown since then," Lucy said, smiling wider at him. He stared at her. "What, it's true!"

"You know, I wasn't sure what to think when Gramps called me into his office and then assigned me to train you. I've gotten to know you a lot better within the past day than I ever bothered to in the past. I guess it made me realize how little I know about everyone else in the guild," he said. Lucy couldn't read the emotion in his voice.

"There's always time to get to know people in the future," Lucy responded. Laxus shook his head.

"There is, but that's not the point. I barely know my family, the people that I will be in charge of protecting at all costs. If I don't know them, then I don't know how to protect them," he said. Lucy;s eyes softened. He really had grown. He would be ready to take over as guild master as soon as they got back from their trip.

"You need to remember that our guildmates don't like to be protected. They want to fight alongside you to protect not only themselves, but everyone else," Lucy said with a wink. She turned around and started walking down the main hall again. Laxus stayed standing where he was, thinking about what the blonde woman had just said. Lucy stopped outside the doors that she knew led to her father's old office and waited for Laxus to follow. A few minutes later, he shook himself out of his head and realized that Lucy wasn't right in front of him but was about a hundred feet in front of him.

"Sorry," Laxus said. Lucy shook her head but said nothing to his apology.

"This room is my father's old office. I figure we might as well start in here. There's over a hundred rooms in this place so it might take a while to find what we are looking for. Hopefully it will be in here, though," Lucy said before she opened the door. Lucy walked in as Laxus glanced around the massive room in front of him.

"I need to stop being so damn surprised by this place," he muttered. Lucy giggled. "Really, I did jobs for rich people all the time, just not this rich."

"There were very few people that could match my family's level of wealth back in the day. We had old money for the most part. My mother's family owned the rail company and my father took it over after he married my mother," Lucy explained. Lucy walked over to her father's desk and looked over the surface. There was nothing on it except for a letter addressed to her. She picked it up then sat down at the desk chair.

_My dearest Lucy,_

_ I have failed you. Ever since your mother sealed away your powers, I blamed you for her death. I realize now that I have lost both of you that I have failed. Though you are still living, and I refuse to believe otherwise, I have lost your love. I have lost your trust. I am so sorry, Lucy, my daughter. _

_ You will find your mother's key in the magic safe located in my desk. Your magic will be able to unlock it. I'm unsure of what constellation this key is for, I have never heard of a constellation by this name. Perhaps this is not a celestial gate but, but a spirit key. The spirit helped your mother seal your powers and has knowledge of that they can do. She will be able to help you. _

_ I'm sorry I haven't been able to be a good father to you, Lucy. I'm sorry you had to leave to find a family who loved you, but I am glad you have found them. _

_ Take care, my daughter. You have a long road ahead of you._

_ Much love,_

_ Your Father_

Lucy read the letter, carefully tracing her fingers across the delicate letters of the words her father had written. She had hated him for a long time, or at least she thought she had. She loved him no matter what. He had tried to make up for the years he lost, but she was on Tenrou. He had died before she got a chance to see him again and tell him that she forgave him. She put the letter back into its envelope and then gently put it in her key holder next to her mother's letter.

Lucy then got up from the chair and pushed it away from the desk to look at the drawers. She opened them all one at a time, but she found no safe.

"Laxus, can you help me? There's supposed to be a safe in this desk, but I can't find the trigger for it."

Laxus walked over to her and then looked in the doors himself. He found a false drawer bottom and found a button inside. He pressed it, then the desk started changing its shape. Both he and Lucy moved away. The desk stopped changing once it had formed itself into a safe. Lucy stepped forward cautiously, then put her hand on the door and concentrated some magic into her hand. The door opened. Inside, she found a slim black key with an unfamiliar constellation on it. Beside it was a note.

_Lucy, this is Daela. Daela is not a constellation key, but rather a spirit key. Daela was known as a goddess hundreds of years ago. She represented the sun and its power to the people who worshiped her. She was sealed away by a celestial mage around five hundred years ago. To call her, simply say "Open: Gate of the Infinite Sun, Daela." Be safe, Lucy._

Lucy picked up the key and felt that it was unusually heavy for its size.

"Is that what we were here to find?" Laxus asked her. Lucy nodded.

"This is the spirit that helped my mother seal my powers. She's supposed to be able to guide us to what to do next," Lucy replied. Suddenly, the desk changed back into its original form. Lucy walked around the desk and stood facing the door. She held the key out in front of her and opened its gate.

"Open, Gate of the Infinite Sun, Daela," Lucy said as she pushed her magic through the key. A bright light appeared in the room. As it died down, the shape of a young woman appeared.

"Ah, Lucy, I'm happy to see you again. It's been so long," the woman said. Her voice was smooth and comforting. Lucy relaxed right away, not even realizing how much tension she had held in her body. Laxus watched the scene before him silently.

"I assume the one behind you is your thunder mage?" Daela asked. Lucy nodded.

"Laxus Dreyer. Nice to meet you," Laxus said with a nod in her direct. Daela smiled back.

"I'm glad Lucy was already able to find someone to help her," the spirit said. She looked around the room. "My, it looks like no one has lived here in years," Daela said, frowning.

"We went bankrupt. I hadn't lived here for a while before that happened, though. I was tired of Father's oppression, so I left and joined a magic guild," Lucy said, explaining what happened. Daela frowned more.

"Oh Jude… I never expected him to change like that after your mother passed. In truth, she wasn't supposed to suffer those kinds of side effects from the sealing, but she had just done something else that required a huge amount of magic and she was already suffering the effects of magic exhaustion," Daela told Lucy. Lucy said nothing, but she felt a bit less guilt because of that.

"What can you tell me about these powers? Mother called it the World Destroyer, I think? What does it do? How do I have the power to decide what it does or does not do?" Lucy asked the spirit.

"This is an ancient magic, one of the first magics. Your mother told you of the One Magic, yes?" Lucy nodded. "This magic is a split from the One Magic. Legend tells of a woman who was betrayed by her love, and her One Magic went haywire. It started to change the landscape, even splitting the world into this continent and the one across the ocean. No one was able to control the power, until the Thunder Dragon showed up. The dragon was able to seal the power into the heavens with the help of his slayer. Now, this doesn't answer your question yet, I know. The difference between you and the woman who created this power, although you are a direct blood descendant, you weren't betrayed by the one you love. Should that happen, however, the consequences would be devastating. With no being strong enough to seal the power for another 400 years, there's no way to know how much could be destroyed, or if there would be anything left. As for how you can use this power in the reverse, any magic can be used for good or evil. Magic itself is not inherently bad, just how it is used determines what type of magic it is. If you have the power to destroy, you must also have the power to create or restore. No one knows for sure what the full capabilities of this power are, but your grandmother had a vision. She saw first a great amount of destruction brought about by Zeref being reversed by a powerful woman. The second thing she saw was, quite literally, nothing. There was nothing there. Nothing existed anymore. There was no ground, no trees, to life, no Earthland. You must control this power, Lucy. Everything depends upon it."

Lucy started to pace around the room, thinking about the information she had just learned. Something so powerful had taken a dragon to tame it.

"How?" Lucy asked finally.

"We must leave the estate first. There is much that can go wrong, and we don't want to draw too much attention to this place. After all, you don't want to accidently destroy something you no longer own, do you?" Daela said, a smile on her face. Lucy nodded.

"How far away will we be?" Laxus said, speaking up again. Lucy couldn't read what he was feeling by the tone in his voice.

"I'll bring us somewhere, but I need you to trust me. Typically, humans aren't able to be transported through different dimensions, but since you have already been through this many times before, Lucy, I don't think it will hurt. I will take you to my homeland. It's empty now, my people have long since died out or moved elsewhere," the spirit explained. She had a sad glint in her eye. Laxus sighed but nodded.

"If it's alright with you I think we should get going. The sooner the better," Daela said. Lucy and Laxus nodded. "Please hold on tightly to your bags and to me. I don't want you to get lost on the way there."

With that, Daela stretched out her hands and Lucy grabbed her right hand while Laxus grabbed her left. Then, they vanished. At least, vanished from the Heartfilia estate. They reappeared surrounded in a bright light in the middle over an old, overgrown market.

"What is the name of this place?" Lucy asked, curious to know the name of her temporary home while she trained.

"This place was once known as Eiru. We were famous for our ale's. People from different nations would spend weeks traveling just to taste a drop. This is the main market square. Back in the day, this place would have thousands of people milling about, buying different textiles and foods from merchants," Daela said. She looked around the square, remembering what this place looked like when her people still lived.

"Daela, if it's alright with you, I'd like to clean up some of the overgrowth," Lucy said hesitantly. Daela turned around and smiled at the young woman. She was so much like her mother.

"I would love that, thank you, Lucy. You are so much like your mother you can't even imagine," Daela said brightly. Lucy smiled back at her. Lucy turned to Laxus and caught his eyes. He sighed but nodded.

"I'll help too, fine."

Hours later, much of the overgrowth had been removed. Lucy was laying on the stone ground looking up at the moon in the sky. It was a full moon. Laxus had started a fire using some of the wood they had cleared out that day. Daela had returned to the spirit world to help Lucy save some of her energy.

"You should get some sleepy, Blondie. We have a long day tomorrow," Laxus told Lucy. Lucy just continued staring at the sky.

"I will soon. The stars look different here," Lucy said. Laxus took a moment and looked up at the sky himself.

"They seem brighter," he said quietly. Lucy smiled.

"That they do. The air here is very clean so there's no smog polluting the sky. I haven't ever seen the stars shine this bright." Laxus moved from his place near the fire over to where Lucy was laying and sat down next to her. By the time he got there, though, Lucy was already asleep. He got up from his spot and grabbed a blanket, then walked back and put it over her. He shook his head, then went back over to his sleeping bag near the fire and got in for the night.

"What have I gotten myself into," Laxus thought to himself. Elsewhere, a certain sun spirit was smiling down on the two, excited for what was to come.

**Okay, another chapter down. Sorry this took a bit to get up. I had a chemistry test today and I have a physics test on Friday! Only 4 weeks left until I have much more time to write. **


	3. Chapter 3

**Here's the third chapter!  
Again, I do not own Fairy Tail. I only own my OCs!**

Lucy woke up feeling like she had spent all day tearing weeds out of the ground and hauling things away. Of course, this is actually what she did the previous day, but she wasn't expecting to feel this sore after. She groaned. Behind her, she heard someone chuckle.

"Did too much yesterday, Blondie?" Laxus said. Lucy pouted. "Come eat something, you'll need it."

Lucy got up from her spot on the ground and walked over to the fire and got some food from her bag. She sat down and stared into the flames. Laxus kept his eyes on her, wondering why she was so quiet. They continued to sit in silence until Lucy was done with her food. Lucy then stood up and walked a little ways away from the fire to summon Daela once more.

"Lucy, I must thank you again for doing this yesterday," Daela said once she had appeared. Lucy nodded.

"You're welcome," she replied.

"Anyway, I suppose we should start your training. Laxus, where would you like to start?" Daela asked him. He was surprised, but then realized this was something of a test.

"Given that the seal on your power is weakening, I think you should mediate and try and find that power and where it's starting to leak. Try and see how it feels, things of that nature. Regardless of if you find it, the meditation should help your magic stores regenerate and help you feel better for once we get into more physical training," Laxus said while glancing at Daela. The spirit smiled and nodded. Laxus turned his gaze to Lucy, who also nodded.

"Any idea what I'm looking for, Daela?" Lucy asked.

"You'll know it when you feel it," Daela said. "It will be much different than celestial magic. You know how your own magic feels inside of you, yes?" Lucy nodded. "Then look for anything that doesn't feel like that. It might feel darker, or otherwise different. Don't be alarmed or afraid when you find it. Just feel it inside of you and try and accept that magic as a part of your being."

"Why do I have to accept that power already? Wouldn't that possibly cause the seal to break sooner?" Lucy asked. Laxus was the one who answered.

"The faster you accept that this other magic is part of who you are, the easier it will be to control it later once the seal does break. If it breaks earlier because of you accepting the power that's okay. If you fear the power, it will only hurt you and others in the end. Regardless of this being the so called "World Destroyer" you've also heard it can do the opposite. As long as you aren't afraid of it, nothing will go wrong. Trust yourself," he finished. Lucy relaxed.

"Okay, I can try," she said. She sat down on the ground and closed her eyes. She had meditated before; her mother had taught her how to. She cleared her mind and tried to delve deeper into herself. She quickly found herself at her inner magic pool. In her mind, she walked closer to the pool of celestial magic. It was a crystal clear lake. She was on the beach side of the lake that gradually sloped into the water. At the other end of the lake was a forest full of massive trees. Birds of all colors flew above the lake, colors that closely resembled the hair colors of her best friends. She decided to walk to the forest end of her magic pool, as she had never been there and assumed that was the only place the other magic could exist. She reached the edge of the beach where the sand met the trees. She felt an energy humming away beyond the tree line. She took a deep breath then ventured into the forest.

To her surprise, a path formed in the trees as she walked. It was just a dirt path, but it was nice to have instead of having to navigate through the dense forest. She was walking along the path for a while until she came to a fork in the road. Both sides looked identical, but she thought one side would lead her deeper and the other would lead her back to the beach. That's how it went in stories, at least. She closed her eyes and felt out to both sides. The energy she had felt in the forest at the tree line was to the left. She opened her eyes and walked to the left. This time, as she went further, she felt the energy humming much more intensely. She kept going.

The humming got to the point where she felt like she was shaking. She knew the sealed power must be near. The forest was also starting to get denser around her. The light from the artificial sun in her inner world was starting to get covered by the canopy. She walked for a few more minutes when the path disappeared. She kept going. The closer she got to the power, the thicker the brush. She was getting tangled in vines and weeds, but she kept powering through. She had to see what this power was. She had to take it in as a part of her.

On the outside, Daela and Laxus sat near her watching her as she meditated. Unbeknownst to Lucy, she had been meditating for nearly seven hours at this point. Laxus was starting to worry.

"When do we pull her out? She's been in there for a long time," he said to Daela.

"We don't. She has to do this. If we pull her out before she's ready, we could break the seal without her accepting the power as part of her being. That would make our jobs much, much harder," she replied, but concern was evident in her voice. Laxus sighed but said nothing more.

Finally, Lucy reached what she felt was the center where the power was sealed. There was a wall of vines and tree limbs, but she managed to tear through them with her hands. As she entered the closed off section of forest, she was another lake, this one was half clear, half murky. In the center of the lake was an island with a bridge spanning from the island to the lake's shore. Lucy cautiously crossed the bridge to the island. There, she saw someone she never thought she would see again.

"Mother?"

Lucy's magic started to leak from around her body, cloaking it in a purple glow. Laxus frowned.

"Are you sure we can't pull her out?"

"She's just found the power. Now she makes her decision. There's a trial set up within the seal, something that will determine what the power will do. If it will Destroy, or if it will Restore. We have to wait. There's nothing we can do now," Daela said. Laxus grumbled, but stayed seated where he was.

"Hello, Lucy. It's been so long," her mother said. Lucy almost ran right to her but stopped. She looked at the ground in front of her and saw that there was a divide.

"Why is the ground two different colors, Mother?" Lucy asked. She felt something was wrong with this situation.

"It's just the way the island is. On the side you are on, the water is clear, and the grass is green. On my side, the water is murky, and the grass is brown. It's just how the water works, my dear," Layla said. Lucy frowned.

"Mother, come to my side," Lucy told the woman. She shook her head.

"No Lucy, you must come here. I would love to hug you, but I have to stay here. This side is right, this is the side this power was meant to have. You have to take it, Lucy. Embrace it. Use it for all you wish," Layla said louder, almost shouting. Lucy refused to move.

"No. Magic is meant to be clear, untainted by darkness. That's why your side is muddy. You aren't my mother. Mother would never have asked me to do something like that. She told me to always believe in the Light, in Love, and the One Magic," Lucy said with a note of finality. To cement her point, she walked from her spot on the green side of the island to the shores of the clear water.

"No, Lucy, you are making a mistake! If you do this, the power will be wasted," Layla screamed.

"No. This is where I'm meant to be," Lucy said as she stepped into the water. She felt it start to swirl around her. Behind her, she heard Layla screaming. She didn't turn around. She waded further into the water until it was up to her neck. Then, she took in a deep breath and plunged her head under the water.

"This is what I want. You are me, and I am you," she thought to herself as she was under the water. The water seemed to sense this thought and she felt something change within her. She stuck her head up above the water to find the island gone. She was back in her main lake, but it was massive. It seemed more like an ocean than a lake. There was no forest around it anymore, though. She was thankfully near the shore. She walked out of the water and sat down on the beach. She took the same form as she had her body in and coaxed her way back into her body.

Lucy opened her eyes. The sun was setting and Laxus and Daela were hovering around her wearily.

"Uh, guys, a little too close," she said. They sighed.

"Lucy, can you explain to us what happened?" Daela asked her, but it was more of a demand than a question.

Lucy went on to explain her journey around her inner magic pool, the forest, the fork in the road, and the island with her mother.

"I knew it wasn't my mother. She wanted me to use the power for good, not for destruction. I think it was the manifestation of my ancestor who tried to get me to choose the same path she did, but I didn't. I went into the clear side of the lake and told it that I accepted it as part of me, just as I was a part of it. Then I put my head out of the lake and found I was back on my main magic lake. I can't really call it a lake anymore, though. It's more like an ocean. Then I came back here," Lucy finished.

"Well, we can feel that you are much stronger. I can also feel that the seal is gone. Don't worry though, Lucy. That was the vital first step. Now, we have to figure out how to train you in that power," Daela said.

"Blondie, something you should know about what happened here while you were in there… Well, look around you," Laxus said. Lucy glanced around and saw that the trees, grass, and other weeds that had spent most of the day before removing had all returned.

"I did all this?" she said in awe. Laxus nodded.

"This is life magic, the opposite of the Dark Mage Zeref. You remember what it was like on Tenrou when we saw him. Everything near him died. Everything near you comes back to life. The main difference is that you aren't cursed, which means that you can control this, so you don't accidentally regrow all the weeds all the time," Laxus said.

"Where do you want me to start, then? And does this now negate the thunder magic controlling the power? I still don't really understand it," Lucy said.

"I don't know, Lucy. The other form of this magic was only controllable by thunder, but I think that it might still be the case. Regardless, he can help you train. Now, I must return to the spirit world. You should rest, you have done a lot today, Lucy," Daela said as she disappeared in a bright burst of light.

**Sorry for a shorted chapter this time, everyone! This was a good stopping point for this chapter so I decided to end it here. The uploads for the next few weeks might be shorter because it's almost finals time and I am super busy with school. I will aim to update again on Friday next week, but we will see if that actually happens. **

**For anyone wondering, Daela is a bit shorter than Lucy and has ginger hair. She wears a Greek style dress that is very flowy. She also has golden eyes.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Here's the next chapter!**

**As always, I do not own Fairy Tail. I only own my OCs. **

Lucy was panting as sweat dripped down her face. After she had blended her magic pool together, she had trouble figuring out how to handle that much magic. She was accidentally putting too much magic into her keys, thus making the summoning not work. After the sixth time she failed to open Plue's gate, Laxus decided that she needed to just expel a lot of her magic. This meant that she was training with her stronger power, what used to be known as the World Destroyer. However, right now, it wasn't doing anything more than moving rocks and the wind.

"I don't get it. I can only move small stones and make the wind pick up," Lucy complained through her pants. Laxus stood about 30 feet in front of her, completely fine.

"Magic involves both the ability to channel the magic, which you are already having trouble with, and also visualization," Laxus said. "You aren't able to visualize what you want to accomplish with the magic; therefore, it isn't doing much."

"What do you want me to visualize then? I'm sorry if I'm not fully able to see what the hell I'm supposed to do with a magic called World Destroyer without actually destroying things!" Lucy yelled. As she did, the wind started whipping around her and made her fall flat on her face. Sitting up again, Lucy said "Why couldn't it just be like requip, Erza taught me how to visualize that."

Laxus's eyes widened a bit after she mentioned requip.

"I have an idea," Laxus said. Lucy tilted her head to the side in question. "You've already accidentally moved rocks and made the wind pick up. Try focusing on one rock and moving it to targets that I will set for you. If you can do that, maybe we can make some sort of progress."

"We've been out here doing this for four hours and you just thought of that now?" Lucy deadpanned. Laxus's eyebrow twitched.

"To be fair, Blondie, you didn't either," he gritted out from between his teeth.

"Doesn't matter if I didn't come up with it, you are the one supposed to be training me," Lucy said.

"Just pick a damn rock and move it."

Lucy passed out in her sleeping bag without even having a chance to eat first. Laxus wanted to wake her up, but he didn't think he would be able to. He continued to look at her for a while until he was interrupted by Daela.

"What's on your mind," she said. Laxus sighed.

"I have no idea what the hell I'm supposed to be doing. It's not like I have any guidance to it, and neither of us have any idea what kind of things she is capable of doing. Frankly, I'm kind of nervous about what might happen if she loses control and I don't know how to stop it," he said, his tone serious.

"The Thunder Dragon was the one to seal this power the first time, was it not? Regardless of if you just have the dragon lacrima or if you were trained, the dragon's magic power is the there and so is some of it's knowledge. You know how to be a dragon slayer from the lacrima, yes? Then you can look within yourself to find out more," the spirit goddess said, smiling. Laxus frowned.

"How are you so sure that this will work?" Laxus asked. The spirit smiled.

"It's within you and it's a part of who you are, Laxus. Just look within yourself," she said as she faded. "I must return to the spirit world for now. Do as I say and you might surprise yourself with what you find."

Laxus sat for a while with his gaze turned towards the fire. He sighed again, then closed his eyes, trying to locate his magic plane.

Eventually, Laxus got to his internal magic plane. Whereas Lucy's magic plane was a lake (now more like an ocean), his was a cave. Inside that cave was, yes, water, but it wasn't sunny and warm. This was cool, dark, and felt a little bit dangerous. Lucy hadn't ever used her magic to harm the people she loved, but he had. He grimaced at the memory that came to the surface of his mind about Fantasia. He was standing near the edge of the large chamber of the cave and looked around the edges. He couldn't find another passage to go through, at least, not from where he was standing. He started to walk around the cave lake.

The water was giving off a blue light that helped him see what was on the chamber walls. His magic stores were quite large, which, generally speaking, he was happy to have, but in this situation he would have been much happier to have a smaller magic reserve. It was taking a while for him to go around the chamber. After what seemed like thirty minutes, he found the extra passage he had been looking for.

The passage itself wasn't too terribly large, but Laxus would easily be able to walk through it. The only problem was that it was completely dark inside. The light from his magic wouldn't be able to light the whole way through. He knew from experience that he wouldn't be able to use his thunder magic within his magic plane, so he frowned, wondering how he was going to get to the place he needed to go.

From within the passage, he heard something grumble. He couldn't make out what it was, but the voice that made it was deep and rough. He was able to pick up a foreign scent as well that didn't match the normal cave smell of must.

"So, my eyes won't be useful in here at all," he thought. "But I can hear, and I can smell. What was it Natsu used to say… Sometimes his dragon tested him and made him find things without his eyes to guide him. Guess it must be a dragon thing." Laxus closed his eyes and listened again. This time, he concentrated on his hearing, he was able to hear each drop of water drip down from the stalactites on ceiling of the cave. He heard the blood rushing around in his body, even. Finally, he heard it. He heard deep breathing from a creature that was massive based off its inhalation time. He tried to pick out the smell of the dragon as well. After he finally located the dragon's scent again, he started following the passage with his hands out in front of him so he didn't accidentally walk into a wall.

Eventually, he came to a fork in the passage. Though he couldn't see it, he could hear the wind blowing past him differently from each direction. Using the dragon's scent trail, he followed the right passage. Now, the passage started to get a little smaller, but it was still big enough for him to fit through. After walking for quite a while longer, he accidentally kicked a rock that was on the ground and he heard it echo as if it was in a large chamber. He had found his dragon. He finally opened his eyes.

Within the chamber was a massive black dragon with yellow striped going around his body. He was sleeping in the very center of the chamber. The whole chamber seemed to glow a blue-green color. He slowly walked forward to the sleeping dragon in front of him.

"Did no one tell you, boy, not to wake a sleeping dragon," it grumbled as it exhaled through it's nose.

"There haven't been dragons in hundreds of years, so that information is irrelevant," Laxus said cautiously. He was weary around them, his only experienced with Acnologia and the dragons that appeared during the Grand Magic Games.

The dragon snorted, and almost seemed to chuckle.

"I suppose," the dragon said. It opened its eyes. There were an electric yellow with a vertical black slit. "It's been years since this lacrima has been implanted, yet you've never sought me out."

"I wasn't exactly told this is something that was possible until one of my guildmates did the same thing with her power. I'm sure you feel it, after all you have a lot of experience with it," Laxus said, looking the dragon in the eye. The dragon narrowed its eyes.

"I have felt it, but it's different than I remember. I assume that's why you are finally here, kid. I was hoping you'd have come to me before you let her figure out how to access her power, but that seems to have gone alright," the dragon said as it started to stand. It stretched its massive wings out, then stretched its legs, then laid down again. "Come, there is much that I must teach you about this power and also your own."

"You should follow some of that spirit's advice, and your own. The reason you have trouble accessing your slayer magic is because I'm so far away from your magic source. It would be beneficial for both of us to merge it into your main source. That way, if you ever need my power you can access it quickly," the dragon said after Laxus sat down about 5 feet in front of the dragon.

"Why are you so willing to help me in the first place? Aside from Lucy's magic, that is. There's another reason," Laxus said as he narrowed his eyes. The dragon let out a deep laugh.

"After you've spent so many years with the only part of you trapped in a lacrima, any company is good. You have seen a lot, boy. Also, after you die, this lacrima will break and the rest of me will die with you. Seems we might as well prolong that event from happening for as long as possible, eh?" the dragon breaks out.

"What aren't you telling me?" Laxus asking, knowing there was still something the dragon wasn't saying.

"I like you, kid. Had you been alive in my time, I would have taken you as my slayer. I would have had a slayer if that damn imposter dragon hadn't gotten to me first. Somehow my power ended up in this. Your guildmates talk about dragons that I knew at one time. Igneel, Metalicana, Grandine. Given, they were much younger than I was. I would have been old to have a slayer. I'm just glad those three, along with a few others, had their legacies carried on," the dragon sighed. He trained his eyes on Laxus's form in front of him. "I guess what I'm trying to say is, this is what I wanted. And I like you, kid. I hope you can finish what the dragons started. Finish Acnologia. Finish Zeref. And whatever you do, don't let that girl fall to the dark."

"She made her choice when she merged her magic reserves though," Laxus stated, confused.

"That means she has the affinity for light, but that power isn't a power meant to be used for the good of all people. It's made to destroy everything. It's trained to Zeref, it resonates with his magic. When in contact with him, it will most likely start to shift to darkness. Don't let her break," the dragon warned.

"Is that why she's having trouble controlling it then? She's not using it for its intended purpose?"

"Partly. She's never used magic like that before. It's different to go from celestial magic to the elements," the dragon explained. Laxus nodded.

"So, it is elemental, then? That's it?"

"No, not _just_ elemental. The elements are what make up everything in the world. As they are in the natural world, they are in balance. When we use magic, we change the balance. It should quickly revert itself to balance, but with her power she can permanently change the magic balance. That's why I sealed the power away. It could turn everything dark, or everything light. There must be balance in everything."

"I've shifted the balance both ways then," Laxus muttered to himself. The dragon let out a long breath.

"You have, kid. You've hurt people. You've killed. You are a mage, that's in your job description. You've turned your magic to dark, but then also back to light. Just as with nature, you must be in balance. It's okay to dip into the darker side of your powers, but never fall to one side or the other. It won't be sustainable, and therefore it will mess up your magic balance. Look at your guildmate, Mirajane. When her sister died, her magic went too far to the dark side, and she lost control over her magic."

"Mira uses Dark Magic though," Laxus stated, confused again. The dragon chuckled.

"There is no such thing as Dark Magic, Laxus. Mira's magic manifestation may be more easily used for darkness, thus why it is dubbed Dark Magic by you humans, but the magic itself is not dark because it exists in balance. When you channel that magic, your intention makes it light or dark, or even neutral."

"Then even Zeref just has normal magic, then?"

"Zeref is the exception. Zeref suffers from the Curse of Contradiction. He has no control over part of his magic that kills. The more he cares about life, the more he kills without meaning to. The less he cares about life, the less he kills. Aside from that curse, his magic would be considered neutral until channeled into something dark."

"So, Lucy's magic is similar to the curse, then? Except regardless of her intention, it will need to be stopped when the time comes?"

"For now, she is on the side of light. This is actually the best possible time for her magic to have come out of its seal, as Zeref has returned and the magical balance is tilted to darkness. Her magic being tilted to the light will keep the world neutral, for now. In the event she started to use the dark side, then steps must be taken to lead her back to the light."

"And if she can't?"

"Then you will use a power I will not yet teach you. That will be the last one of the powers you learn."

"If it's so important then why is it last? Shouldn't that be the first one incase something goes wrong?"

"Have more faith in your friend, Laxus," the dragon growled. Laxus's eyes widened, then he looked down. "This power requires you to know her, and her soul, very well. If you don't… Well I'll tell you when the time comes. Get to know her, learn who she really is. Get her to share her deepest secrets with you so that she will trust you and you trust her without a shadow of a doubt. That's the only way to avoid something no one wants to happen."

Laxus stayed silent for a while, still looking down at the ground. Finally, he looked back up at the dragon.

"Where do we start?" The dragon grinned.

Inside his magic plane, Laxus was exhausted. He was trying to learn the skills the dragon was teaching as quickly as he could, but he was having difficulty. This was odd for him, as he usually didn't struggle when it came to magic… At least after he got the dragon lacrima.

"You aren't balanced, boy. That's why it's hard," the dragon lectured. Laxus growled in frustration.

"Then how do I get back into balance?" he seethed. He just wanted to make some sort of progress.

"I can't tell you. You have to figure out what is wrong for yourself. You can't grow stronger if you aren't willing to search for the answers within yourself," the dragon said. Laxus sighed in defeat. The dragon frowned, the rested his head down closer to his slayer. "Your emotions control your magic. Right now, even though you won't admit it, you are in emotional turmoil. You have been for a long time. Years and years of hate have suddenly been interrupted by love and happiness. Your magic is used to being fueled by dark feelings and making it into a dark form of your power. It's become used to it. You spent so long with your internal magic shifted to the dark that the shift to the light is making everything difficult. I advise you to meditate on your emotions. Sort through all the emotions that you have felt in life and then let them go. Then, you can start to get back to a neutral magic state and this magic will come much easier. Now go, you need sleep before your companion wakes. Tell her some of what I have told you here, but not everything. I don't want to scare her. For now, she need not know about her ability to shift the natural magic balance of the world."

"I'll be able to come back here in the future?" Laxus asked.

"Of course. I am a part of you now, however I think it would be worthwhile for you to move my magic to your main source. That way it won't take so long to find me every time you wish to talk," the dragon finished. Laxus closed his eyes, then found himself back in the real world. It was dark out, and he decided to follow the dragon's advice and sleep.

**Oook. So a few things. 1: This is late. 2: This is shorter than I thought it would be. 3: The next chapter will go up on Wednesday, then another on Friday. I'll see if I can get any extra chapters up during the week as well. I finished outlining where I want this story to go, so I have some idea of what I'm doing now. Just have to actually write out the long form. I'm hoping that I can get longer chapters written soon! Thanks for reading!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Alrighty everyone! Here's chapter 5!**

Lucy was dreaming. This knowledge did nothing to ease the pain she felt in this awful dream. This nightmare.

The world was on fire. She was running. She didn't know to where, or why, but she was running. She ran past bodies that were reduced to skeletons. Others were only partially charred. It was gruesome. She realized she was running down the main street in Magnolia and was actually running towards the guild. She kept dodging falling trees that were still burning and debris from houses that were blowing up from the flames. Finally, she made it to the guild. It was also on fire.

She went inside the doors. She wished she hadn't. Every member of the guild was dead; strewn around the large main room where everyone ate, drank, and talked for so many years. Through the smoke, she saw the outline of a figure sitting at the bar. As she got closer, she saw herself, but it wasn't herself. This pseudo-Lucy had black hair and was wearing black leather clothes. The fake Lucy sipped on a strawberry milkshake as she watched the real Lucy walk towards her.

"This is what we can do, Lucy. If only you let me out," pseudo-Lucy purred. The real Lucy scowled.

"I'll never let this happen," she said, and the scene began to change. The fire and smoke started to fade, as did pseudo-Lucy.

"Never say never," pseudo-Lucy said as she disappeared. A normal version of the guild was now in her dream. Everyone was alive. Natsu and Gray were fighting, Erza was eating strawberry cake, and Elfman was talking about how manly someone was for something they did. She sunk to her knees with tears in her eyes.

Lucy woke up breathing heavily. She could barely feel the soreness in her body even though she knew it was there. She was too afraid. Laxus was already awake and making breakfast but stood and walked over to her. He looked concerned.

"Nightmare?" he asked her as he got to her side. Lucy nodded, still breathing quite heavily. She couldn't seem to catch her breath.

"Lucy, you need to slow down your breathing," another voice said. It was Daela, and she appeared right next to Lucy and held her around her shoulders. Laxus looked at the spirit and nodded before going back to the fire where their breakfast was going to start burning. Daela held Lucy as she calmed down. Laxus then returned with two plates of eggs and gave one to Lucy.

"Thanks," Lucy said softly. Laxus nodded to her.

"Did you want to talk about it?" Laxus asked, curious as to what spooked her. Lucy stared down at her food before she spoke.

"Magnolia was burning. Dead, charred bodies were everywhere. The guild was the same. I was there, but it wasn't me. She was like… the Anti-Lucy. Her hair was black, and she wore all black clothes. She told me that this is what we were capable of if I let her. I said no, and somehow, I made the dream change back to normal. Before she vanished, she said 'never say never.'" Lucy finished. "I guess I've been really afraid of using these powers wrong and I guess it manifested itself there."

"Probably. But, being afraid of the power doesn't make it any easier to control. It makes it harder. And it also makes accidents much more likely to happen. Don't be afraid of it, Lucy. Respect it, never fear it," Laxus said as he put a hand on her head and ruffled her hair. Lucy pouted, but a smile then returned to her face. Daela, who was still sitting next to Lucy, stood up from next to her and crossed her arms.

"I agree. No good ever comes from fearing one's powers. I think I will do some digging around the archives in the Spirit World to see if I can find out anything else about this power, or at least about elemental powers to help you. I figure that's all I'm going to be useful for at the moment, sadly," she said as she started to fade. Lucy and Laxus nodded to her, and she finished her return to the Spirit World. The two blonds finished their breakfast and Lucy went into one of the buildings to change into new clothes. While she was changing, she wondered why she was sleeping outside every night instead of inside one of the old buildings of the once magnificent city. It might have been something to do with respecting the property of the dead, but the people who had owned this place had been dead for a very long time. Lucy got a weird feeling by being inside of this building, and really all of them felt weird to be in. She didn't understand what it was, but no longer had any desire to sleep inside.

Lucy finally went back outside to meet up with Laxus to find out what training would be for the day.

"Continue with what we were doing. I think you have control over the traditional four elements of water, air, earth, and fire. Right now, air is the easiest for you to us. I think we should focus on that one power for now. Too many might overwhelm you," Laxus said. Lucy nodded, then frowned.

"Do you feel, I dunno, a little bit… Weird here? I can't really describe it, but something about this place is putting me off now for some reason," Lucy explained, brows scrunched as she tried to figure out how to explain the feeling she was having. Thankfully, Laxus understood what she was trying to say.

"I feel it, too. It was here on the first day, I just think you didn't feel it. It's grown since then. It's like there's some sort of magic here that doesn't want us to be here," Laxus said. Lucy nodded, agreeing that that was also what she was feeling.

"What should be do?" Lucy asked, not sure if they should stay or leave to another place.

"Stay for now, but keep an eye out. If anything unusual happens, that is, something that your powers didn't do, tell me and we will get out of here. I can probably transport us via lightning at least a bit away from here to get out of immediate danger… I just wonder why Daela said that this place was safe if the magic around here doesn't feel that way," Laxus said, concerned and doubting his trust in the spirit.

"I'm sure there's a reason," Lucy said. "She wouldn't bring us here if she didn't think it was safe. Or, she hasn't been here in so long that she didn't know what happened to the magic around here. This could be a newer development since her last time here." Laxus sighed.

"You trust too much, Blondie. But for now, I'll give her the benefit of the doubt."

"Celestial magic is built off of trust and promises. That's why when I make a promise, I never go back on it. Mages make promises to the spirits to only summon them on certain days and the spirit makes a promise to show up when called. There is mutual trust between the mage and the spirit that the other party will uphold their end of the deal. I guess it's just natural for me to trust her, as a spirit, but I guess I trust people too much. That's come to hurt me before," Lucy said as she looked down, remembering the events of the Grand Magic Games. Laxus put one of his hands on her head and ruffled her hair again.

"Chin up, Blondie. We all make mistakes; it's what makes us human. What matters most is what we learn from those mistakes so that we don't make them again in the future," he said, a small smile on his face, not that she could see. He quickly banished it from his face when Lucy looked up at him.

"You know, you sound more like Master every day," she said, laughing softly. Laxus frowned.

"Oi, don't compare me to him. I'm nothing like that old pervert," he pouted. Lucy shook her head.

"You know what I mean. You've come a long way. You put yourself in harms way to protect the guild, and you've also done your best to right your old wrongs. You didn't even blink when you were asked to come help me with my powers. You will be a great master, Laxus. And probably sooner than you think. I know your grandpa doesn't want to stay master too much longer," Lucy said, smiling at him. Laxus removed his hand from her head and then turned away from her and started walking. Lucy sighed, but she misunderstood his actions. Laxus, now facing away from her, was smiling.

"If we stay here talking any longer, we won't have any time to train," Laxus said from ahead of Lucy. She hadn't moved yet but started running to catch up to him.

"So, focus on feeling the wind and then move the current to pick up the leaf and bring it to you, right?" Lucy asked to clarify what Laxus wanted her to do. He nodded.

"I want you to be able to move things to specific locations. It will be useful in battle," he said as Lucy nodded. Lucy closed her eyes to start channeling her magic, then opened them again once she felt her magic connect to the wind. She picked a large green leaf that had fallen about ten feet away from her and attempted to get the wind to move and pick it up. She got the wind to change directions to pick up the leaf, but then the wind reverted to its usual pattern and blew the leaf away. Lucy frowned, but tried again with another leaf. And another. And another. And another, until she got frustrated enough that she blew all the fallen leaves away with a gust of wind. Laxus spoke up from across the clearing.

"What are you visualizing?" he asked.

"The wind picking up the leaf and then carrying it right to where you are," she huffed. Laxus frowned, then sighed.

"You are losing control of the wind once you get hold of the leaf, yes? Are you completely switching your focus from the wind to the leaf once you pick it up?" he asked. Lucy furrowed her brows but nodded.

"Yes, I think so, actually," she said. Laxus nodded.

"This time try visualizing the wind coming under the leaf and the area around it and just controlling that current. Don't focus so much on the leaf as on the air. The air does all the work for you, the leaf doesn't do anything. As soon as you find the leaf you want and direct the wind to it, stop thinking about the leaf," he suggested. Lucy nodded, then frowned again.

"All the leaves are gone, though," she said. Laxus rolled his eyes at her.

"Blondie, we are in a forest. Full of trees. That have leaves. And you have wind powers," he said. Lucy smacked herself in the forehead.

"Ugh, I'm an idiot when I'm tired," she muttered. She then proceeded to get a gust of wind up through the trees and many leaves fell onto the ground for her to use. This time she visualized what Laxus had told her to, and she managed to her the leaf about ten feet towards Laxus before she lost control of the wind. He nodded at her to try again. She did and got the next leaf another two or so feet closer to Laxus. She kept trying several more times until one finally landed right in front of him.

"Good, now do it again," Laxus said. Lucy did, still struggling with controlling the wind. She had sweat dripping down her forehead as she concentrated.

"I feel like it shouldn't be this hard," Lucy said after set let the leaf off the wind at Laxus's feet.

"How so?" he asked her.

"I feel like I'm trying to get Aquarius to do something," she said, somewhat annoyed. She loved the spirit, but she was very difficult sometimes.

"So you feel like you are fighting with something that is supposed to be on your side, then? Are you forcing the wind?" he asked again, trying to figure out which part of the process was going wrong. He was drawing on what his dragon had taught him the night before about elemental magic and how she could easily convince each element to answer to her every need if she wanted. That is, if she was doing it right.

"I guess. I feel like I need to fight it to get it to do what I want it to do," Lucy answered. She sat down on the ground and crossed her legs and arms. "I don't get why it's being so difficult."

"This is going to sound incredibly stupid, and speak of this to no one, but I think it's worth a shot… Try asking the wind, politely, to do what you ask it to do. Doesn't have to be verbal, just in your head and in your magic," Laxus said. Lucy tilted her head to the side and looked at him strangely.

"Ask the wind?" Laxus nodded to her. Lucy sighed, then stood up again and started focusing on her magic again. This time, instead of feeling out and wrangling the magic, she tried to feel inside of the wind. Her eyes, which had been closed to help her focus, snapped open. Her jaw dropped. Laxus frowned.

"What happened?" he asked. Lucy closed her mouth but kept her eyes wide open.

"There is magic in the wind," she said, surprise evident in her voice. Laxus nodded.

"There is magic in everything in Earthland, Lucy. I thought you knew this," Laxus deadpanned. Lucy was still staring at him with her eyes wide open.

"You don't understand. It's like… The magic talked back to me. I can't really describe it, but like, I could feel it surrounding me when I reached out to it this time. I felt it stop fighting me and instead it started to comfort me in a way. I can still feel it now," she explained, still amazed at what she had felt.

"Try it again," Laxus asked, interested to see how much easier it would be for her to move the leaf with her newfound connection to magic in the wind. She did so without even moving her body. She just moved her eyes to find the leaf, and then shifted her gaze back to Laxus. The leaf landed effortlessly on his left shoulder. He smirked. "Took you long enough to get that, Blondie." Laxus then had to duck out of the way of a rock that had suddenly come flying at his head. However, ducking didn't help and it still hit him.

"I regret teaching you this now," he muttered. Lucy laughed.

Lucy had to take a bath after the events of the day. Thankfully, there was a large communal bathing room that she had helped clear out on the first day she and Laxus had arrived. The tub filled with spring water that was heated by a fire she had lit. She stepped into the bath after feeling that it was sufficiently warm. She decided to try and reach out to feel the magic in the water. She felt it start to swirl around her and she carefully tried to create a water current within the pool. She ended up creating a faint current, but one that was strong enough to be relaxing. It also helped mix the warm water with some of the cooler water in other areas of the bath. After she washed her hair and her body, she stepped out of the bath and asked the wind to dry her off. A gust of wind came and dried her off, unfortunately leaving her hair quite tangled, but she was glad she wouldn't have to deal with soaking wet hair while the sun was setting and the temperature dropping. She put a new set of clothes on to sleep in and went back out to the fire where Laxus was making dinner.

"I just realized I haven't made any food since we got here," Lucy said as she plopped down next to him. He shrugged.

"I do all the cooking for my team. Bix and Ever can't cook to save their lives, and Freed… Freed is too much of a perfectionist to do camp cooking. Therefore, food responsibility falls on me," he explained. Then he narrowed his eyes when he saw her dry hair. Lucy seemed to notice then looked away.

"I didn't want wet hair, so I dried it," she explained. He chuckled.

"Did you really think I'd be upset over that? I was teasing you, Blondie, geez. I'm glad you were able to figure that part out now. Tomorrow we do the same thing but with heavier objects," Laxus said to her.

"I also connected to water," she mumbled. Laxus's eyes widened.

"Already?" he asked. She nodded.

"It wasn't hard. I was in the bath and water was all around me. It only felt natural to reach out to it," she explained. "I knew what it felt like when I finally felt the wind and water felt very similar. Both of them flow and are easily changed. Earth will be more stubborn I think, and fire will be the most difficult. Kind of hard to surround yourself with fire and not get burnt… At least, not out here."

"You really think that having Flame Brain blast you with fire is a good idea?" Laxus asked with an eyebrow raised. Lucy sighed.

"I guess not. How else will I though? I can't feel the fire in the fire pit," she said.

"We will figure it out later. Let's stick with water and air, but mostly air. Water can come next. You can try and feel the magic inside of the ground and inside fire later. You don't have to learn everything right away. In fact, you can't. It's a process and you need to be patient sometimes." Lucy sighed. Laxus handed her a plate with a fish filet on it as well as some chop sticks. She nearly inhaled her food before passing out.

**Okay! Here's this chapter. Had a busy day so uploading a few minutes into Thursday. There WILL be a chapter on Friday as well. I'm going to try and power out a few more chapters over the weekend so I don't have to write them right before posting. I don't have any reviews so I'll just assume that everyone likes where this is going. (Regardless, this is my story, but I will take feedback or questions if you have any). I haven't decided if this will be a pairing or more of a friendship yet, I want the relationship to kind of develop into whatever it wants to be. Thanks for reading!**


	6. Chapter 6

**So, this is a bit late… Oh well. Life happens. I am getting my wisdom teeth removed tomorrow so hopefully that goes well. In other news, I got a review! Thank you Tiernank! We are also fast approaching 1k views. Thanks for all your support and on with the story!**

Laxus hated how the city felt. It felt like there was a dark presence around that was throwing off the natural magic balance (that he was now aware of thanks to his dragon). He wanted to leave right then, but Lucy was asleep, and he didn't want to wake her too early. He sighed softly to himself and thought about venturing back to talk to his dragon to see it's take on the situation. After debating what could go wrong, he decided it was worth talking to the dragon again. He closed his eyes and ventured back to his magic plane.

"Why are you still in that place, boy? You wonder what I think: I think you need to grab that female companion of yours and get the hell out of here," the dragon growled aggressively as he flew towards Laxus. Laxus took a step back and held his hands up in surrender.

"Why?"

"You were aware that something was off, now you feel something shifting the magic balance. It's not her, either. It has to do with the history of the place you are staying. There is a reason everyone is dead, just as there is a reason that the Goddess was sealed into the Spirit World. Leave, wake Lucy, and get out of here as fast as you can," the dragon urged and all but threw him out of his meditation. When Laxus opened his eyes, a fire was burning all around them. He ran towards Lucy to wake her, but when he arrived he couldn't actually wake her up. She was a very heavy sleeper. He picked her and her bag up and started to maneuver through the fire that was spreading around the ancient city.

A fireball passed right over his head. He whipped his head around and saw a figure standing in the fire, but it wasn't burning. It was almost as though it was a ghost of those who once lived here. It flung more fire at him and he turned his gaze back to the path in front of him. Lucy began to stir in his arms.

"Laxus, what's going on," she said as she opened her eyes to see smoke and fire.

"No idea, the fire started and now there's ghosts flinging fire everywhere," he said hurriedly. Lucy frowned, then started coughing.

"Ghosts? Fire ghosts, but-" Lucy started, but was cut off.

"Lucy, try and connect to the fire," Laxus said. "They are trying to cut off the exits. Don't focus on anything else but the fire." Lucy frowned again, but closed her eyes and in a panic reached out with her magic. She felt hundreds of magic signatures around and gasped.

"There's not just one of them, theres hundreds," she said. She closed her eyes again, knowing now that there was no other option but for her to manipulate the fire out of their way and away from them. She reached out and felt a bright essence inside of the chaos that was burning around them. In response to her reaching out, the fire's essence danced towards her. She willed it to move out of the way so she and Laxus could safely leave the city, and it did exactly as she asked. Laxus found the remarkable fire tunnel that Lucy had created and ran through it as fast as he could. Within a few minutes they reached the forest.

"I don't think they can leave the city," Lucy said. "I feel them trying to throw the fire, but the fire can't leave."

Laxus stopped and set Lucy down and sat down against a tree. Lucy sat down across from him.

"Where do we go now?" Lucy wondered to herself out loud. Laxus sighed.

"First, no more summoning that spirit. I don't trust her, and you shouldn't either. It was never safe there," Laxus scowled. Lucy looked down at her hands in her lap.

"I didn't think she would do something like this…" Lucy whispered. Laxus sighed.

"It's not your fault. As a celestial mage, you're supposed to trust your spirits. As far as I'm concerned, you should call up the Spirit King again and ask him why the hell she led us here if there were angry ghosts there," he muttered.

"I can't just 'call the Spirit King' whenever I want, Laxus," she said, looking up at him.

"I'm sure he will answer if you ask for him, though. This isn't exactly what happened with Loke but it's similar enough. You, her contracted mage, could have died because of her actions. Therefore, you should get an audience with the Spirit King." Lucy sighed.

"Even if I did, where does that leave us? Lost, in the middle of who knows where, with a broken spirit contract and more questions than answers."

"It doesn't matter. We need to know why this happened. It could have killed us," Laxus insisted. Then, a bright light shown and Loke appeared.

"Well it's about damn time you showed up," Laxus said as he glared at the spirit. Loke held his hands up.

"I had other things to do. Life as a spirit isn't exactly easy, you know," Loke said. Laxus kept glaring at him. Lucy decided to interrupt.

"Loke," Lucy said. He turned to face her. "Wha-"

"I can't explain much, princess. I'm sorry. It isn't my place. The Spirit King told me I wasn't allowed to tell you and let Daela explain what happened for herself. I can tell you she had no idea about the lingering souls, but that's it," Loke said, cutting Lucy off. Both she and Laxus frowned.

"I don't want her around here," Laxus said, crossing his arms. Loke sighed.

"I understand. But I think you should listen to what she has to say. Again, it isn't my place to tell her story. If you wish, I'll gather some of the other zodiac spirits and we can be on standby," Loke tried to negotiate.

"That's fine. Just hurry it up. We need to leave this place and try and get back to the guild," Laxus said. Lucy said nothing as she scrunched her brows. Loke nodded and returned quickly to the spirit world, then within a few minutes he returned with Taurus, Scorpio, Aries, Virgo, and Capricorn. Laxus looked over to Lucy and nodded. She nodded back and summoned Daela. She appeared out of a bright light and refused to meet Lucy or Laxus's eyes.

"Explain," Laxus said, venom dripping in his voice. The other spirits, including Loke, stiffened. Loke knew just how dangerous Laxus was when someone threatened someone he cared about, and even though the dragon slayers anger wasn't directed at him, he was still afraid.

**(A/N would recommend playing Past Story here from the anime…)**

"I wasn't completely truthful with you. I know. I had no idea their restless souls lingered there. My presence made them stir and become angry. I told you they sealed me away. That's partly true. They did seal me, but only with the help of the zodiac. All of them were present when my key was created. I asked them to. Long ago, the Dark Mage Zeref was perfecting some of his demons. That so happened to be near this area. I had hoped that his magic wouldn't touch my people. Sadly, this wasn't the case. Slowly, the dark magic in the air slowly started to infect everyone. Suddenly, in a peaceful city, there was crime. Neighbor killing neighbor, friend killing friend. I had to do something. My followers were coming to me, praying for me to do something and take the crime and death away. So, I did something. I came into contact with Leo and he relayed what was happening to the Spirit King. Leo gathered the rest of the zodiac and with the Spirit King's blessing they turned me into a spirit, but only after I committed the ultimate sin. I killed every one of my people. The oldest to the youngest. There were no survivors. They cursed me and my name when I went through, burning everyone. It was the hardest thing I ever had to do. The constellation on my key isn't a real constellation. Instead, it is the pattern of the temples devoted to me. I'm sorry I didn't tell you before. Your mother was my first key holder in hundreds of years, your ancestor, wielding the same magic as you, being the only other. I never thought their souls would come back to exert vengeance. Please, I hope you will forgive me someday. For now, I take my leave. I shall not appear on my own power unless you give me permission. I give my sincerest apologies for what I have done. I live with the pain of everything I did before I became a spirit every day, and I shall have to live with the fact I risked you lives as well," she finished as she disappeared, tears streaming down her face. The zodiac spirits were silent, heads tilted down to the ground.

Loke was the first to speak.

"I hope you understand why I couldn't be the one to tell you. Even though we all knew, it was not our place. I beg of you to forgive her in the future, but I know it will take time," he said gravely. The other spirits disappeared. Loke soon followed. Laxus and Lucy sat in silence for a while longer.

Laxus stood and sighed after a while, then walked over to Lucy and held out a hand to her. Lucy took his hand and Laxus helped her up. The two started on their way, both still feeling the sting of betrayal. Lucy had tears streaming down her face as she walked, but she walked with her head held high. She would end Zeref so no one would ever have to suffer the same pain.

The two walked for hours. It was now around two in the afternoon, sun high in the sky and beating down on the two relentlessly. They were now walking through plains. Lucy ran her hands over the grasses as she walked through them, her tears now dried. Laxus hadn't said a word since Daela had told her story. Lucy hadn't said anything either. It was as though they were each travelling alone, together. Laxus came to a stop in front of her and held a hand up. Lucy slowly walked up next to him to see why he had stopped them. Ahead of them was a clearing. Inside the clearing, in neat, maintained rows were headstones. Lucy walked in front of Laxus to get a closer look. He followed after her.

Lucy examined some of the stones and found that every stone looked the same: A crystal on the top and the name and age of everyone who died, as well as something about them. Everyone had died several hundred years before, and most likely were one of Daela's ways of trying to find peace with herself. That didn't mean Lucy forgave her, but she understood her reasoning. There was a lot Daela didn't explain, such as the magic balance and why nothing else could be done but killing everyone. She also didn't explain why she didn't notice the souls earlier. Lucy kept walking towards the middle of the cemetery to a large crystal pillar. Engraved in the pillar was the story of what befell the people of Heiwa, the city of peace. Lucy ran her hand over the engravings and her mind went blank.

Laxus stood next to her, still not saying a word. Finally, Lucy spoke. Her voice was broken and raspy.

"Do you think she did everything else that she could?" Laxus put his hand on her hand that was on the crystal and gently removed it from the stone. He nodded. Lucy felt tears start to stream down her face again. She turned and hugged him without a thought and started crying harder. Though he was shocked at first, he wrapped his arms around the crying woman and held her as she cried for her spirit and the lives the spirit had to take. The crystal started to glow a brilliant white. Each headstone's crystal also glowed. Lucy was oblivious to it, but Laxus saw what was going on. He also felt the hundreds of magic traces he thought he had left in the city of Heiwa start to come to the cemetery. However, this time they weren't hostile. Each one fused itself with what he assumed was their headstone. Lucy was putting the souls to rest over four hundred years after they died. After the last soul had returned to its' headstone, the headstone crystals stopped glowing. The giant crystal in the center of the cemetery didn't.

Lucy eventually stopped crying and stepped out of Laxus's arms. She turned and saw the giant glowing crystal and her eyes widened. Engraved in the crystal now were the words:

_Whenever anything may seem lost, it shall return here, Lucy Heartfilia, for you have returned the souls of Heiwa to rest._

"Let's go," she found herself say. She felt as though her body was moving automatically as she left the cemetery. Laxus followed wordlessly behind her. They walked for a few more hours when the finally reached the forest again. The sun was setting and the two stopped and made camp. Unfortunately, their food had been destroyed in the fire earlier in the morning, but Virgo appeared with already prepared food in hand. The two ate in silence as they listened to the crackling of the fire.

A while later, Lucy found herself laying in her sleeping bag and staring up at the stars. They had never seemed this vibrant, not even on her jobs with Team Natsu in the middle of nowhere. This was apparently a special type of nowhere. The stars twinkled down at her, but she didn't think it was out of joy. The stars were crying. A horrid thing had happened, and no one could have done anything about it. After locating the constellations and figuring out which way was west, she drew an arrow in the dirt with a stick next to her. She would tell Laxus they should head west, and they would eventually hit the ocean and would most likely be able to get a ride back to Magnolia. After the arrow was drawn, she stared back up at the heavens. There was something extra there that night. A new constellation with the same pattern as on her key. Daela finally became a constellation in the stars. Lucy felt a weight lifted off her shoulders that she didn't know she was carrying. She closed her eyes, feeling like she could possibly rest easily now.

"Lucy?" she heard Laxus ask.

"Hmm?"

"I'm sorry," she heard him say softly. Lucy took a deep breath and opened her eyes again, finding Daela's new constellation in the night sky.

"Me too."

**Thanks for reading! Sorry this is a shorter chapter, but I didn't want to write any more after the last little scene. It seemed like the perfect ending for this chapter, so it's what I will go with. Also, feel free to vote on the poll on my profile! It's about what story you guys want next! I won't be writing it right away because I want to get maybe four more chapters into this story, but I have outlines for all of the story options I have posted. Thanks again!**


	7. Chapter 7

**Here's another chapter! Don't forget to vote on my poll! I took a bit of a break to heal from my teeth, so thanks for letting me do that!**

When Lucy woke in the morning, she felt heavy. The emotional toll that the previous day had taken on her had finally caught up to her. Even though she understood the spirit's reasoning, she wasn't quite ready to forgive her yet. She would eventually, but this wound was too fresh. Especially since she and Laxus could have gotten killed because of it.

Today, she was the first one awake. This was never the case. Laxus usually always woke first. She looked over at him and saw him sleeping peacefully. She smiled. He never seemed like he was at peace while he was awake. There were moments where he seemed like he was, but those were few and far between. She knew he still harbored a lot of guilt and self-hatred for the events of Fantasia the year she joined Fairy Tail. He had atoned for all of it in the eyes of everyone involved, except his own. She wished he could see what everyone else saw. She knew Master thought he was ready to take over leading the guild, but Master also knew that right now he would refuse.

Lucy also knew that Laxus was hiding something. She had known him long enough and even though they hadn't been travelling that long, she could tell he hadn't told her something. She would find out. Secrets were dangerous.

Lucy started to move around the camp, finding the basket of food Virgo had left for the two of them. Thankfully, breakfast didn't require any cooking as it was fruit and hard-boiled eggs. She wasn't the best cook out of her group, and she wasn't super confident in cooking over an open fire. She also didn't want to disturb Laxus and wake him.

After Lucy finished her breakfast, she decided to start practicing with wind. She was comfortable enough with adjusting the wind by gently coaxing it now that she could do it around camp. She hadn't yet started lifting heavier objects with it, since she really only figured out how to effectively move the wind two days before. Lifting leaves was easy though. She wasn't ready to move on to things other than leaves yet because she wanted to make sure she could maintain control.

Lucy was moving leaves around the campsite for almost half an hour before Laxus finally woke up. She didn't notice at first until she felt like someone was staring at her. Laxus was looking at her, seemingly confused. Lucy tilted her head to the side in question.

"I wasn't expecting you to be up before me and practicing is all," he muttered. He wasn't expecting for Lucy to catch him looking at her. Lucy nodded, then went back to moving leaves while Laxus got himself some food. Eventually, Lucy stopped moving her leaves around and returned to her sleeping bag to pack it up. Laxus was sitting by the fire, staring into it.

"What do we do now?" Lucy asked him. He kept staring into the fire as he answered.

"Go home."

The two packed up camp and headed west towards the coast based off of Lucy's dirt arrow she had drawn the night before. Again, they didn't talk very much for the first part of the trip as they made their way through the forest. They had no idea how long they would be walking until they reached the coast. Lucy was occasionally getting the wind to blow at them to cool them down, as the day was quite hot. They continued on their way for a few more hours before they stopped for lunch.

"I wish I knew where we were, I don't want to be walking for a few more days before we reach the coast," Lucy sighed. Beside her, Laxus nodded in agreement.

"Any of your spirits possibly able to help with that?" he asked. Lucy scrunched her brows in thought.

"Maybe Crux would be able to help," she muttered. She stood and summoned the spirit.

"Ah, Lucy, it's been a while," the spirit said, smiling at her. She smiled in return.

"It has, Crux. I need some help. Do you think you could find out where we are right now? I know it might be a longshot, but we are lost and need to get home," Lucy explained. Crux nodded to her, then started searching for any information that was relevant in his head. Laxus, meanwhile, thought the spirit had fallen asleep and tilted his head. Lucy, noticing his expression, explained that this was how Crux searched for information. Laxus nodded but kept staring at the spirit. A few minutes later, Crux seemed to "wake up" from his information searching.

"It seems to me that you are about three days walk from the coast. In another day's walk from here, you will reach the Sakana River. Follow that for the rest of your journey and you will reach Willow Port. Is there anything you need, Miss Lucy?" Crux said. Lucy shook her head.

"Thank you, Crux," she said as the spirit disappeared. She looked over to Laxus.

"So, three days till Port," he said. "Could have been worse."

"It could have, yeah. I Just hope it gets less hot as we get to the coast, but that isn't usually what happens unfortunately," Lucy frowned.

"You're doing a good job picking up the breeze, though. Makes it more bearable," Laxus pointed out. Lucy smiled.

"Thanks, Laxus. I'd try and get a mist going but I have no idea how to do that yet," Lucy said.

"We will keep working on it once we get back. As much as I don't like it, spending some time around Natsu and Romeo will probably help you with fire. Juvia can probably help with water. Wendy with wind. We just need to find someone to help you with earth, and don't you dare suggest that Iron Dragon Slayer," he scowled. Lucy laughed.

"Fine, he isn't earth though, so he wouldn't really be helpful. The only earth mage I know is Jura, and he's a Wizard Saint. I don't think he will have time to help me," she said. Laxus shrugged.

"He seems to be worth a shot. As soon as you explain your powers he won't say no," Laxus said confidently. Lucy tilted her head.

"How are you so sure?"

"He's smart. Teaching you is a smart thing to do. It's not like it will take that long for you to pick it up, given how stubborn you are," Laxus said. Lucy scrunched her nose, then summoned the wind to smack him in the face with a swarm of leaves. Lucy smiled in triumph when Laxus went flying backwards.

The two returned to walking, as the more they walked, the closer they would be to home. Laxus seemed to have learned his lesson about teasing Lucy since she could attack him without him knowing about it. He tensed a bit every time she picked up the breeze to cool them off. Lucy was very smug about the situation. Lucy started practicing picking up small rocks and throwing them in front of her with the wind.

"When should we stop for the night?" Laxus asked her, wondering when she wanted to stop.

"Now, actually. I feel like it's going to start raining soon," Lucy said as she stopped walking abruptly. Laxus stopped beside her.

"How much time do you think we have?" he asked, not wanting to get soaked.

"About half an hour at most. I think Virgo left us each a tent," Lucy said. The two started to dig through their packs that the spirit left them and each found their respective tent. The spirit world tents didn't take long to set up. They both heard thunder in the distance and then decided to stay in their tents for the rest of the night. Thankfully, with Laxus being a Lightning Dragon Slayer, he could deal with any lightning that got too close to their campsite for the night. He only ended up having to deal with one bolt of lightning that came a bit too close for comfort. Within an hour of the storm starting, there was no more lightning, just rain falling softly from the sky.

Laxus sat in his tent listening to the rain as it hit the top of the tent as he ate his dinner, which consisted of a sandwich. He had no idea how food from the spirit world seemed to stay good, but his ham sandwich was nice and chilled. He felt a tug at his magic and followed it back to his magic plane.

"Well kid, I guess you got out just fine," his dragon snorted.

"I guess you really do care," he jeered. The dragon laughed, then Laxus felt himself smile.

"Since it's raining and you are stuck inside for the rest of the night, how about I train you on the next series of moves?" the dragon suggested. Laxus nodded. "Good, now show me everything we did last time."

Laxus spent the next several hours training with the dragon correcting his form and adjusting his magic output. He was learning that he pumped way more magic into each of his techniques than was actually necessary, and therefore could actually fight much longer than he was previously able to. This would probably be useful in the future, given the enemies that had shown themselves on Tenrou several years before. He'd have to attempt to teach the other slayers, most likely just Natsu and Gajeel, about controlling their magic output as well. Wendy had much better control over her magic output because she was a healer.

"That's enough for tonight," the dragon said. "It's nearly midnight, and you need to sleep. If you think the rain is bad with your dragon slayer hearing, just imagine what the girl is feeling right now."

And feeling the rain she was. Lucy felt like she was drowning. It wasn't like when she was taking a bath. There was a definite amount of water there and she knew where it was and where it was going to be, but with the rain she had none of that. She felt the small traces of magic in every drop that fell from the sky, and she felt the massive amount of magic in the clouds above. She felt like she couldn't hear or see anything because it was just everywhere.

Lucy didn't notice as Laxus opened her tent up and came inside.

"Lucy," he said, then waited for a response.

"Lucy," he tried again, but she still sat there as if she was in a trance. Carefully, he zapped her with a tiny bit of electricity and she seemed to come out of her haze.

"Laxus" she asked, confused that he was there. Then she realized he had snapped her out of feeling absolutely everything going on outside. She sank down onto her sleeping bag and pulled her knees to her chest.

"Too much?" he asked, knowing she was overwhelmed. She nodded.

"It was like I could feel every raindrop and where it hit. I felt like I was drowning," she said, now feeling exhausted from the experience.

"You don't right now though, right?"

"No, not anymore. I mean, I feel it, but just kind of in the clouds, not the raindrops," Lucy said. Laxus nodded.

"Get some sleep. I think this takes priority now for training. You need to learn how to do that by yourself," he said as he exited her tent. Lucy curled up and fell asleep almost instantly.

Meanwhile, Laxus was in his tent thinking when he should have been sleeping. The dragon hadn't told him that he would be able to disconnect her from feeling the elements' magic with lightning, so he decided to ask him about it right then. He closed his eyes and ended up back inside his magic plane.

"I thought I told you to go to bed, Laxus," the dragon huffed. "But you have a question that needs answering." Laxus nodded. He didn't even have to ask the dragon before it started answering.

"You disrupted her magic that was getting unconsciously connected to the vast amount of water around her. She was basically in a magic induced trance, like an illusion magic. One way to wake someone from that is to disrupt their magic. So no, you won't be able to break her off from her elemental powers or her connection with your magic unless she puts herself into another trance. The first few storms will most likely be difficult for her, so make sure someone is with her to help her break out of the magic trance. I suppose the ride back to Magnolia will be the same as you will be on the ocean, but you will be there and she can work on separating her magic from the water enough to a point where she hopefully will be okay after a few days. Now, sleep. You have two more days until you reach the port."

**Sorry this was kinda short and not too much happened. This is one of those chapters where it needs to happen to progress the story, so I don't have a bunch of time skips! I will do my best to get another chapter up asap that will hopefully be longer! Thanks for reading!**


	8. Chapter 8

**Next chapter!**

Lucy woke up the next morning somewhat exhausted from her ordeal the night before. She realized that she needed to learn how to disconnect herself when she felt herself being pulled too far into a strong natural magic source. Just as she reached out to them, they reached out to her sometimes, or at least, that's what it felt like. It might not have been reaching for her, but the magical presence in the storm the night before was so massive she couldn't help but lose herself in it.

Laxus had said the night before that disconnecting would be the top priority for her to learn now, and she knew she would have to learn it fast, especially with their upcoming trip on a boat for who knows how many days. She was almost dreading it, but she was much too excited to get home. She and Laxus hadn't been gone that long, but it had felt like ages since so many things had changed. She now had access to the four main elements in a way other mages didn't know about. She helped create Daela's constellation in the sky after the events that had happened a few days prior. She was torn between calling upon the spirit again, but she needed more time. She wanted to trust her spirit, but she couldn't, not yet. Laxus surely didn't want the spirit around.

Speaking of Laxus, he seemed to know what was going on and she didn't know how. She hadn't questioned it before, but she thought there was something else he wasn't telling her. She would bring it up once they were on the boat on the way home.

Today, they were supposed to reach the river that would take them to the port to get home. She decided to pack up her tent and see if Laxus was awake. If he was, they could be on their way. She quickly ate some jerky and dried fruit before actually packing up her tent.

Laxus had already packed his tent before Lucy had woken up. He knew she was awake because he could hear her moving around in her tent. He was going to wake her but thankfully she had woken up on her own before he had actually gotten up to go wake her up.

He wasn't sure about going home already. He didn't feel like they had made much progress Lucy's training, but at the same time she was now able to direct elemental magic and do so without using a lot of her own magic. The only bit of it that was hers was when she redirected the natural magic within the element. She didn't even understand the kind of power she was capable of, but he was. He knew that once she learned more about her powers and what she could do with them, she might be Fairy Tail's trump card against Zeref.

His other hesitation was about what his grandfather would do once he returned. Laxus didn't feel like he deserved to be back in the guild, let alone be next in line to be the leader of the guild. He knew that the old man was planning on passing the guild to him soon. Part of going with Lucy to help her was redemption for himself, but because they weren't gone for that long he didn't feel like he accomplished that.

Lucy finally emerged from her tent and started taking it down. They didn't say anything, resorting again to silence as they had for the past few days. Lucy was getting tired of the silence, but at the same time, they didn't have too much time to talk. Lucy finished packing her tent and turned to Laxus. He nodded at her and stood. Lucy turned around and started walking.

About an hour later they reached the river, then Lucy relaxed. She didn't realize she was stressed about making sure they were going in the correct direction the whole time. Lucy picked up the breeze to cool herself down because it was another hot day.

A few hours later, there was a boat on the river coming from behind them. Lucy didn't even notice them at first, but Laxus did. He grabbed her wrist to stop her from walking further. As the boat got closer, Laxus tried to look to the sails and flags to see if it was a merchant ship or a pirate ship. River pirates were more common than most people thought, having dealt with them multiple times on different jobs. He found a familiar seal of a family he had taken a job for in the past. Given, that was almost 10 years ago now, but he figured someone might recognize him. The ship started slowing down by tying up some of its sails and an middle-ages man called to them.

"Need a ride, strangers?" he shouted from the ship. He held up a scope to his eye to try and see them more clearly before he let them onto his ship. Lucy held up her hand to display her Fairy Tail mark, which he focused on. Then he saw Laxus and gave his crew orders to stop the ship and get them aboard. Once the two were on the ship, the owner came by to greet them.

"Ah, Laxus, it's been a long time," the man said. Laxus nodded.

"That it has. I suppose you heard what happened though," Laxus replied. The merchant nodded vigorously.

"Such a shame, frozen on an island for 7 whole years while everyone else goes about their lives and ages. I'm glad you are all back, though. I haven't found another group of mages that I have been able to trust to protect my ships," he said. The man then turned to Lucy.

"I apologize, I haven't introduced myself yet, Miss Heartfilia. I am Robert Jacobson, owner of Jacobson Shipping. It's been many years since I have seen you or your father," he said. Lucy nodded and shook his hand that he had reached out for her.

"It's a pleasure to meet one of my father's old business partners," Lucy said, a soft smile on her face.

"It was wonderful to work with him, and let me share my condolences. Please, let me know if there is any situation where you would need a ship again and I will get you on your way. It's the least I could do," Robert said to her again, smiling sadly to her. Lucy smiled back at him, then looked to Laxus. He nodded to her, thinking the same thing.

"Will any of your ships be on their way to Magnolia as soon as we get to Willow Port?" Lucy asked him. Robert nodded.

"This ship will actually be loading tonight with some magical goods as well as textiles as be off to Magnolia in the morning. I guess fortune has found us today, my dear!" Lucy nodded to him, smiling again.

"Indeed, it has."

Lucy was standing near the rail of the ship watching the trees go buy. She gently picked up the breeze behind her to help them reach port earlier than expected. She wanted to explore what magic shops were in Willow Port before setting out. She also recounted having met the Jacobson family beforehand. Robert was actually at her mother's funeral. She remembered that he used to have a deal with the rail line to ship products over land. After her mother's funeral she never saw him again. She did know from her father's records that he was making bad deals and cutting off old partners. She didn't know why Robert remembered her father so fondly.

"Wondering about your father, perhaps?" Robert said from behind her. She jumped and turned her head to him. She looked confused.

"How-"

"Ah, let a businessman have his tricks. The key to getting a good deal is being able to know what the other person is thinking. Even as a child you had a very distinct thinking face. I just took a wild guess," he finished winking at her. He walked up to the rail next to her.

"Your father used to be a wonderful business partner. He kept my company afloat after we ran into financial trouble after losing a few ships to pirates. He helped fund for protection for my ships, and slowly we made our way back. It took years to get our reputation repaired, but Jude stuck with us throughout the whole thing. I'm sure you experienced much more of this than any of his partners, but he changed after your mother passed. He backed out of our contract suddenly and left us wondering what to do because we suddenly didn't have our main way of shipping on land. Business got worse for us and we almost went under, but thankfully we had a new wave of businesses needing things shipped between ports. He entered into contracts with other major businesses, including the one he tried to get you to marry into. You, of course, weren't about to do that and chose your own path in life which is what your mother wanted for you. Even though he did all these bad things, we still get to chose what we remember him by. I chose to remember him as the friend who would help me even in the worst situation rather than the man who lost himself. You get to make that choice, too. You always do," he said sagely. He looked over to Lucy and saw her eyes get distant. He nodded to her and dismissed himself back to his duties on the ship. Lucy stood there staring out at the trees as they passed thinking about what the man had said.

It was hard for Lucy to wrap her head around. Even though she had forgiven her father for what he did, and she was forever grateful for what he had done for her in the 7 years she had disappeared, there was still a part of her that was remembering all the bad things he had done. She didn't notice that Laxus had come to stand next to her. He gently guided her away from the railing and to a place for her to sit down. She stayed quiet for a few more hours. Laxus had heard the conversation and knew she needed time to think, but that didn't mean she had to be alone.

About three hours later Willow Port came into view. Robert was surprised that they had made it there that early but could also feel the heavy breeze that picked up every once in a while that carried the ship a ways. Lucy seemed to have made a decision in her inner battle after having her conversation with Robert. They sailed into the eastern part of the city and under several bridges that had magical lifts installed to allow for all the river ships to sail through. About half an hour later, the ship docked and Lucy was eager to get back onto land. She was getting a bit overwhelmed from the ocean nearby and needed to figure out a way to disconnect, and what better way for her to disconnect than to go into magic shops and look for new celestial keys?

Laxus followed Lucy fairly closely through the port town, not sure about the people that lived here. Around Magnolia, there was actually very little crime. Although, having Fairy Tail around seemed to intimidate most of the would-be trouble makers. Generally, port towns were much rowdier places with more crime because of the number of ship crew members who had pent up energy. Laxus wasn't about to chance it, though. Lucy herself didn't seem to mind, and she actually seemed to stay closer to him even though she could have just walked faster.

"You know, the way I met Natsu was in a port town like this," Lucy said suddenly. "I was looking for him, actually, but I managed to get caught up in some sort of seduction magic. I ended up on a ship with a bunch of other women who were uncurious. Natsu came onto the ship and helped me get free. Then he brought me back to Fairy Tail, and I've been there ever since. I've never gone to a port alone since," Lucy finished. Lucy stopped walking and Laxus looked up. It was a sign for a magic store. Laxus looked back down to Lucy and saw that she was tense. He put his hand on her shoulder and she turned back to look at him.

"I won't let anything happen to you ever again. You won't either, you're strong. You were back then, too," he said. Lucy smiled softly up at him, then turned and opened the door to the magic store. Laxus followed behind her, giving her a bit more space this time. He watched as she walked around the store, looking at all the magical items that were available. Lucy was eyeing a silver key for a while but when she asked the price it was over 200,000 jewel with no negotiation. It was for Ursa Major. Lucy's energy that she had while walking around the shop took a sudden drop. She looked to Laxus and started to walk to the door to leave. Lucy walked outside and Laxus made the decision that Lucy would have that key, and he would make sure of it. He looked over to the shop owner and quickly told him to save it. The owner smirked and nodded, putting the key behind the counter. Laxus quickly exited the shop to find Lucy. She was walking back to the ship and Laxus quickly caught up to her.

The two made it back to the ship to find that the crew were getting ready to head to a pub for dinner. The two decided to join them, and Robert said he would be buying the whole meal. Dinner itself was uneventful, as the pub was nice for it being a pub, and the ship crew made for good conversation. Laxus told Robert that he had something to go pick up so to go ahead without him. The crew and Lucy went back to the ship while Laxus went and bought the celestial key for Lucy. While he was in the shop, he also noticed a blue tear-drop shaped pendant. When he asked about it, the owner said that it contained water that any user could summon easily. Laxus decided that Lucy might need that eventually so he bought it was well. In total, he paid over 350,000 jewel, but as he was an S-class mage and had done many S-class jobs before Tenrou, he wasn't exactly short on money.

Laxus got to the ship about half an hour after the rest of the crew. Lucy was sitting on a barrel near the railing staring out at the ocean. She turned back to look at him when she heard him approaching.

"Where did you head off to after dinner?" she asked, curious as to where he went. Laxus held up a plain bag to her to take.

"Just got a few things I thought would be useful," he said as she took the bag. Her eyes narrowed at him as she stuck her hand in the bag. First, she pulled out a large black box that contained the water pendant. She looked at it, then back to him.

"A necklace?" she asked, confused. He nodded.

"It stores water. If you ever need any, you have it in the pendant," he explained. She quickly put it on, the pendant resting perfecting against her chest. She dug into the bag again and felt a familiar box that she had held just a few hours prior.

"You didn't," she said quietly. She pulled the box out and opened it to find the Ursa Major key. She gnelty shut the box again and put it in the bag, then carefully put the bag on the ground. She then threw her arms around him.

"Thank you," she whispered in his ear. He wrapped his arms back around her, realizing he liked the feeling. He never got much physical contact, even as a kid. It was something he cherished when he did get it.

"Anything for you, Blondie."

**And that's a wrap on chapter 8! Sorry for that taking a while, but I write when I am inspired. Thanks for the views, and I'm excited to get into the next few chapters of this story! They will be back in Magnolia in the next chapter, don't worry! I'm letting Laxus and Lucy's relationship with each other evolve on its own, and right now it seems to be going towards a pairing, but there is a lot to go! We will see! As usual, please go vote on my poll, as I'm excited to start writing another story. Reviews are welcome as well. Until next time!**


	9. Chapter 9

**Next chapter!**

The ship set sail just as the sun was rising. Lucy was still asleep in the captain's chamber, as Robert had left it to her and instead slept with the crew below deck. The crew milled about quietly on deck, making sure that everything was tied down and secure, and also cleaning the deck. Robert took great pride in having some of the cleanest ships in Fiore, and every man on the crew did their assigned duty to make sure the high standard was upheld.

Laxus was up near the bow of the ship, trying to not let his motion sickness get to him. He had felt it while on the ship the previous day, as well as that night, but he wasn't nearly as affected by it as Natsu or Gajeel. Wendy was lucky not to have to deal with it. The waves on the open ocean were much larger than those in the port, so that was most likely what was making the motion sickness worse.

Laxus watched the sun paint the sky with bright pinks, purples, and oranges as it rose over the ocean. It was stunning against the deep blue water. He thought about waking Lucy so she would be able to see it, but he decided against it. It would be good for her to sleep while she could so she wouldn't have to focus on trying to keep disconnected from the water all around the ship.

He heard Robert coming up the steps to join him on the bow of the ship.

"You're up early," the older man remarked.

"I usually wake up fairly early," Laxus replied. Robert looked at him.

"Motion sickness to, huh?" Robert said. Laxus sighed.

"Yep."

"You got motion sick the last time too, if I remember correctly." Laxus nodded.

"I'm surprised you remember. I barely did." Robert laughed.

"I try and make it a point to remember things about people. Very few people get motion sick on my ships, the only ones usually being dragon slayers that I take with on occasion for protection. They become somewhat useless afterwards," Robert said.

"You've had other slayers?" Laxus asked. Robert nodded.

"Yes, a few from Sabertooth. I didn't enjoy working with them, and thankfully I didn't end up needing them. They were quite arrogant," Robert explained. Laxus nodded.

"Those two have changed, though. After the Grand Magic Games, Sabertooth came under new leadership. Sting grew up a lot, as did Rogue," Laxus said. Robert hmm'd in response.

"I suppose I'll give them another chance, then," Robert said. Laxus nodded.

"Any estimate on how many day's we will be out here?" Laxus asked.

"If the wind works in our favor, three days. If not, closer to five." Laxus grimaced as Robert laughed. "It's not ideal, but you will survive. I think you'll probably get used to it by the end of our trip."

"I hope so," Laxus muttered.

"Just talk to Lucy and everything will seem fine," Robert said. Laxus tensed next to him. Robert laughed in response. "Oh, don't act like that. I've been alive for long enough to notice these things. So, how long has this been going on?"

"Few months honestly," Laxus said, his cheeks tinged pink. He didn't know why he was telling Robert about it, but here he was.

"And you've never done anything about it until now? My, my, you have lots to learn, son," Robert said. Laxus sighed.

"Whatever you say," Laxus said, annoyed.

"She trusts you, that's a start," Robert said. "Why are you afraid of anyone knowing?"

"I don't deserve her," Laxus said quietly. Robert lifted a hand and placed it on Laxus's shoulder.

"You've done things in your past that you aren't proud of. Everyone has. Those you hurt have moved on and forgiven you. You need to forgive yourself, or else you will never be happy. Let the past go," Robert said, then removed his hand from his shoulder and left. Laxus sighed. Many people had told him the same thing in the past few months, especially after the Grand Magic Games.

Laxus stayed on the bow of the ship for another hour, just staring out at the horizon while arguing with himself in his head. He knew he should let go of what he did at Fantasia, but there was a voice in his head telling him that he should never forgive himself. That he didn't deserve to be happy. He'd had this war with himself ever since Guildarts reinstated him as a member when he became guild master for a few minutes. He might try and talk to the man sometime soon.

Lucy woke up in a bed. She hadn't slept in a real bed in many days, and it felt very nice on her back to not be on the ground. The second thing she noticed was that the bed was swaying. She was on a boat. On the ocean. That was now starting to overwhelm her because of the sheer amount of magic in the massive body of water.

Lucy closed her eyes again and started to breathe. She tried to close off her magic from being pulled by the ocean, but she didn't have much experience with disconnecting, so she was struggling.

Thankfully, there was a knock at her door.

"Lucy?" It was Laxus.

"Yeah?" Lucy responded. She wasn't talking in her usual tone, as she was trying to concentrate on disconnecting. Laxus opened the door to the room Lucy was in. Lucy opened her eyes.

"Doing alright?" he asked her. She nodded.

"Just taking a bit of concentration, but I'm much better than during the storm, thankfully," Lucy said.

"Feel good enough to come above deck?" Lucy felt Laxus had some sort of ulterior motive for asking.

"The wind died didn't it?" Lucy said, sighed. Laxus nodded to her, his shoulders dropping.

"Yeah," he trailed off. "If it stays like this it'll take about 5 days to get to Magnolia."

Lucy giggled. "I'll see what I can do."

Laxus left her room so she could change into a different set of clothes. Lucy left the room a few minutes later. She felt the hot sun beating down on her from above. There were no clouds in the sky, and there was also barely a breeze.

"Ah, Lucy, good morning," Robert said from across the deck when she made an appearance.

"Good morning, Robert," Lucy greeted. Lucy looked around the deck and found Laxus on the bow of the ship. She walked over to him.

"The motion sickness is better when I can see above all the waves," Laxus said. Lucy looked at him curiously.

"Then I guess we will be up here most of the trip then," Lucy said. She looked around and saw nothing but water and blue skies. Lucy sighed, then started picking up the wind to get the ship going faster. Some of the crew stumbled around deck after the sudden uptake in wind. Unbeknownst to her, Robert was looking at her. He knew she had something to do with the wind, he just wasn't sure what.

Lucy sat down on the deck and focused on keeping the wind moving at a good speed. She wanted to get home as soon as possible. The magic in the ocean was pulling on her while she moved the wind, but it wasn't as bad.

Unfortunately for Laxus, the increase in the ship's speed made his motion sickness much worse. He sat down next to Lucy and closed his eyes, trying to think about anything except his rolling stomach.

One of the crew brought lunch for Lucy and Laxus. It was around 1pm now, and Lucy was anxious to see the stars come out. All sailors knew how to sail by the stars, and Robert would be able to tell her how many more days until they got home.

A few hours later, the wind randomly picked up on its own. Lucy stopped controlling the wind, as it was blowing on its own. The wind felt different when it was blowing on its own. It was getting stronger. Robert came up on the bow of the ship.

"The wind is acting odd," he told them. "I'd say there will be a storm brewing in the next few hours. It'll most likely be a strong one, so get ready to get below deck. We have some water mages on our crew to prevent the ship from sinking incase the storm got that bad, but we will have to see. It might turn out to be nothing." Laxus looked over to Lucy, who nodded at Robert's assessment that there would be a storm.

"When should we head down?" Laxus asked. Robert sighed.

"Within the next hour I'd say, but the sooner the better," Robert said. Lucy looked between Robert and Laxus, then nodded.

"We'll head down soon, then," she said. Robert dismissed himself and left the two.

"How bad is the storm?" Laxus asked her quietly.

"Bad. It's getting stronger as we speak," Lucy said. She sighed.

"How bad is bad?"

"Let's just say we are lucky we have the water mages in the crew. I wasn't aware that any of them were mages, but I suppose it's good to have a few just incase of situations like this," Lucy said.

"Let's head below deck, then," Laxus said as a stiff breeze blew past them.

Below deck, Laxus was going much worse than before. The waves were also considerably bigger than they were. Lucy had started freaking out because she felt the sheer power of the storm. Laxus felt her magic start to fluctuate and he moved closer to her.

"I don't know if I can control it," Lucy said, her voice strained.

"You can," Laxus said. "You have to. You always do things that people deem impossible, things you've deemed impossible. Do it again."

"I don-" Lucy was cut off when a massive wave hit the side of the ship, and, if not for Laxus grabbing hold of her, she would have tumbled to the other side of the ship.

"You have to, Lucy. What's going on outside?" Laxus hurried.

"The storm will hit in a few minutes. We are getting the preliminary now," she said as she started trembling. "The ocean, the first storm, they are nothing compared to this. It feels like how powerful Acnologia felt that day."

The door to the belly of the ship opened and crew members poured in. They were all drenched, and Lucy saw the black sky. Robert was with them. Another wave slammed against the ship. The crew stumbled to their bunks to have something to grab on to.

A few minutes later, the door opened again. It was one of the water mages.

"Sir, we can't keep up. It's full cyclone," he shouted over the howling winds.

"Bring them below deck," Robert shouted back. Slowly, the water mages crawled into the now-cramped space below deck.

"What now?" one of the men asked. Robert shook his head.

"Nothing. Pray if you like, but there's nothing we can do now," he said gravely. Lucy looked to Laxus, and he grabbed her hand.

"You can do it," he whispered in her ear. She nodded and closed her eyes.

Lucy felt like she was hit by a train when she put her magic into the storm. She felt doubt in herself, but she knew she had to take control or else she and everyone else on the ship would die. She tried to push the storm back, but it didn't budge. She tried to push with more magic, but the storm was massive, and the amount of magic power in it was unrivaled by anything Lucy had ever felt.

Meanwhile, the ship was slowly starting to fill with water. Some members of the crew had taken to praying over their rosaries, others sat in silence. Robert looked over to Laxus, who was holding Lucy's hand. He saw Lucy has closed her eyes and was concentrating something.

A pop sounded through the ship. Aquarius had appeared.

"Stupid humans," she muttered. She looked over to Lucy and felt that she was trying to move the storm. She went over to her master and grabbed her other hand.

"Feel the water, Lucy," Aquarius said. "Feel it moving, feel it's magic. Feel the magic churning in the sky. Feel the magic that is surrounding you right now. Then tell it exactly what you want it to do."

Lucy heard Aquarius. She felt for the magic all around her.

"Good," Aquarius said to her. "Now, let's get back to shore with a wave. Do it with me."

Aquarius started to create a massive wave, and Lucy felt her magic pull on the water. She added her power to her spirits to create a massive wave. Lucy only thought of home and sent the wave to the ship.

The people on board felt the ship heave as it was lifted in the air by the massive tidal wave. The ship started to tilt as it was lifted higher on the wave. The crew took this as they were all about to die after getting crushed by a tsunami, but Robert knew better. Lucy was saving their lives.

The crew stopped cowering after a few minutes because they realized they hadn't died yet. The wind had died down outside, and light was pouring in from the small windows in the hull. Aquarius had already disappeared again by this point, and she would later say that she only appeared to help because she didn't want all Lucy's keys to get lost for an eternity.

Lucy was visualizing herself above the ship and steering where it was going gently on the giant wave. She followed the coastline down to the familiar port she had walked around many times before. She gradually decreased the size of the wave and brought the ship back to the normal sea level. The ship was sitting right next to a dock, waiting to get tied down.

Lucy opened her eyes to find everyone staring at her. She blinked, then passed out.

Lucy woke up in the Fairy Tail infirmary. Wendy was next to her bed checking on her, and hugged her when she opened her eyes.

"Excuse me, Lucy-nee. Everyone made me promise I would get them when you woke up," Wendy said, running out of the room. Only seconds later, Natsu, Erza, Gray, and many others poured into her room. They had all been worried when Laxus had carried her into the guild. After they realized he hadn't done anything wrong and realized they should feel horrible for thinking such things, they listened to what happened. Lucy had moved a ship hundreds of miles on a single massive wave out of a massive storm. The same story buzzed around Magnolia, except it was embellished to make it seem Lucy was some goddess of the sea that protected sailors from storms. Her photos in the souvenir shop were now out of stock due to superstitious sailors.

Eventually, everyone decided to let Lucy rest, as she used a lot of magic in one large burst; something she hadn't done in a very long time, and never on that scale. Laxus was the last one left in the room.

"Someone's popular," he teased. Lucy rolled her eyes.

"I guess, I did just become a Sea Goddess after all," she replied. Laxus shook his head, grinning.

"You deserve the title. We'd all be dead by now," he said, his tone more serious.

"Did Aquarius really appear on her own? Or was that my mind just showing me things?" Lucy asked.

"She was there. As much as she is a problem, she loves you," Laxus said, reading right through Aquarius's previous statements and actions. Lucy nodded.

"What's next?" she asked.

"More training, I guess. That storm we got out of is heading our way now, but at least we are on land again," he said. Lucy furrowed her brows after a minute.

"We are right next to the ocean here, and I can't feel it pulling me anymore," she said. Laxus smirked.

"Guess you finally figured out how to disconnect yourself from it after showing it who's boss," he said. Lucy giggled, shaking her head.

"I wouldn't say that, but whatever. Let me sleep," she whined. Laxus walked over to the side of her bed.

"Then sleep. I'm not going anywhere," he said. Lucy took a deep breath, then curled up under her covers again. She was out within a minute.

**And they are back in Magnolia! Sorry this one took a while to write. I've been writing my new story Evangeline! Go check it out! Thanks for sticking with me. We will be getting into Tartaros soon!**


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